Ain't No Sunshine

 

800 years in the making.  The 2020 Great Conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon.  A cosmic spectacle, they say.  I can't even remember what day it is or if I took my pills, so I add this event to my Google calendar, which manages my life these days.

The day has arrived.  December 21, winter solstice.  The shortest day of the year, and as expected, my Google assistant reminds me to check the skies.  Several times I check the back yard, standing out in the snow without my coat and accompanied by my dogs, who wonder what I'm looking for.  They don't see any rabbits in the yard, I don't see any stars, so we all go back inside.

My half-glass full husband sweetly offers to drive me somewhere that it's not cloudy.  Seems reasonable.  I check with my Facebook friends in New York to see if anyone else can see the blessed event.  Nada.

Then I Google (there's that company again) "Syracuse NY and Great Conjunction" and find this doom and gloom article that proclaims a miracle would be needed to see this planetary juxtaposition.  Turns out that the cloud cover in the sky is close to 100%.  But if I drive to the state of Virginia, there is a 50% chance that the sky will only be partially cloudy. 🙄

There is still hope, right?  This is supposed to be visible through the end of December.  Guess again, my friend. Syracuse is Upstate NY's cloudiest city, ranking eighth from the bottom in the US in terms of possible sunshine. Syracuse gets 44 percent of available sunshine throughout the year. This time of year, it's at its worst: Sunshine peeks through the clouds just 23 percent of the time in December. While people invented grunge and think they have the market cornered on despair, they are number 9 in cloud cover.  We are number 8. Suck on that, Eddie Vedder.

Cloudiest places in US, by percent of available sunshine

Rank	Location	State	% sunshine
1	Mt. Washington	NH	32
1	Quillayute	WA	32
3	Juneau	AK	33
4	Hilo	HI	41
5	Nome	AK	42
5	Pittsburgh	PA	42
7	Anchorage	AK	43
8	Syracuse	NY	44
9	Columbus	OH	45
9	Seattle	WA	45
11	Grand Rapids	MI	46
12	Binghamton	NY	47
12	Buffalo	NY	47
12	Cleveland	OH	47
15	Alpena	MI	48
15	Sault Ste. Marie	MI	48
15	Rochester	NY	48
18	Burlington	VT	49
19	Albany	NY	50
19	Lansing	MI	50
19	Duluth	MN	50
19	Toledo	OH	50
19	Portland	OR	50
19	Avoca	PA	50
25	Indianapolis	IN	51

Source: National Centers for Environmental Information

It's 2020, par for the course.  If I can unpack my patience, I will be able to view this event in 2080, when I'm 115.  Perhaps at that time Mars will be colonized and I will be able to view it from my nursing home window located on the 4th planet from the sun.