Insolation

Insolation is the phenomenon by which solar heat is absorbed and retained. And my cat is very good at it. He is a golden cat in the golden sun, and in the evening he is warmth unto my feet when the sun has set.

And what of the sun? Well, I am now insolated in a way — I am the proud owner of a Solar Titanium watch, functional and inexpensive, a daily thing like the sun it is named after. But looking at its name, I was reminded of the solar titans.

Who were they? We know little of them and their mythology, although there are a number of stories. The first solar titan was Hyperion, 'Most High', son of Ouranos and Gaia. His successor was Helios, after whom we named helium — compared to his predecessor he must have seemed a lightweight.

And so I mused. And I remembered the idea of solar titans and the tutelary spirits of the stars. Some day, they will return to our cosmology.

Ring Around The Sun

Today, the Tailor came running into the office. "Look! Up in the sky!" And he ran out again. Suddenly, infused with the spirit of the Beatles (as seen in A Hard Day's Night), I felt moved to get up and run out as well. Several others followed.

Behold, there was a ring of rainbow light, a halo around the sun. Of course the Tailor, as a physicist, knew what caused it. But although we knew why it appeared that way, we were all engulfed in the wonder, the splendour, the glorious beauty of it all. Yes, the upper air was filled with tiny ice crystals. Yes, refraction does occur and its effects are seen as a circular locus visually centred around the sun (which approximates a uniform source at that distance). But physics aside, this was pure poetry.

I've seen haloes around the moon before, but seldom in broad daylight and hardly ever at noonday. This was a particular, spectacular moment of meteorological grace.