December 2028: 366 days end under an eclipsed moon
Dispatch, Thursday 21 December 2028. Today is the solstice: the year's shortest day north of the equator, and its longest to the south. After tonight the leap year has ten days left, and it means to spend them. December reaches from Friday 1 to Sunday 31 December. Five Fridays, five Saturdays and five Sundays sit across weeks 48 to 52. The moon books five phases this month, one to a week. The last of them, on Sunday 31 December, rises straight into eclipse.
Five phases, two of them full
The diary reads: full moon on Saturday 2 December and last quarter on Saturday 9. New moon arrives on Saturday 16, with first quarter on Saturday 23. A second full moon follows on Sunday 31 December, which makes it a blue moon by plain arithmetic. Four phases land on Saturdays and the last on a Sunday, a roster of some regularity.
The month opens and closes on full moons. The second does not simply rise; it arrives already shadowed.
The last night, twice marked
The blue moon passes into total eclipse on Sunday 31 December. Totality runs from 16:16 to 17:27 UTC, which the moon spends entirely in copper.
Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia see the whole of it. The show begins over western North America before the moon sets there. No equipment is needed beyond a clear horizon and a coat.
The 366th day of the year ends beneath that shadow. The following morning is a Monday, the first day of 2029. The calendar seldom manages a cleaner handover: the year out on a Sunday, the new one in on a Monday.
Solstice day and other appointments
Northern daylight reaches its floor today, Thursday 21 December. The Nobel Prizes were presented in Stockholm and Oslo on Sunday 10 December, the date fixed each year. The United States Electoral College meets on Tuesday 19 December to formalise the vote of 7 November.
China's Tianwen-3 sample-return mission is working its December-January window. A pair of Long March launches out of Wenchang aims to have the samples home by 2031.
Work is thin this month: 21 business days against 10 weekend days, across weeks 48 to 52. The grid is at its most generous exactly when the days are at their shortest. Print two sheets, one to close this year and one to open the next.
A 366-day year goes out on a Sunday in the moon's shadow, and Monday morning belongs to 2029. The January grid should already be on the wall.