The Longest Day
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The Longest DayToday is the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. At least for those in the Northern Hemisphere. Sorry Australia, no idea when it is down under.
Hopefully that doesn't mean you're working longer today. I know after an evening Father's Day margarita with my wife, we walked outside at 9:30 and could still see some light peaking up over the mountains just west of Denver.
Today is also the start of summer, though with my kids at home and 90F days, it seems that summer arrived a few weeks ago. And with the horses sucking down lots of water and my wife traveling, I get to sit outside and fill a water tub every couple days.
As a child I really looked forward to summer; getting to the beach, the pool, playing baseball, no school, summer was a great time. As a young adult I hated summer when I had to work because the humid days combined with a suit and tie were less than pleasant. Though I didn't mind a lack of static when working on the innards of servers. Now I work at home and once again I like summer. Going running in the heat, shorts, no cold Colorado winds blowing, it's a nice time of year.
So take a moment today and enjoy the long day. If you've got sunny weather, sit outside, especially in the evening and catch a sunset in your part of the world.
Steve Jones
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down under hurrah! Tourists in Australia can buy t-shirts with the southern pole at the top of the shirt. It was Australia's shortest day on Tuesday. When it's the Northern Hemisphere's shortest day, it will be our longest day.
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Well, for all those who living in Spain the longest day of the year is the day past tomorrow. In some areas fellows here are able to read a newspaper out of home till 22:15 (10:15)
Summer in Spain begin with lots of ancient traditions all over the country as amazing bonfires in the middle of the cities along with big fireworks on the beaches and so on.
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It's the winter solstice and shortest day down here. Sunrise was about half past 6 this morning and sunset will be around quarter to six this evening. (about, I'm not timing it)
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverabilityWe walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass -
Nice editorial. Thanks.
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html -
"Sorry Australia, no idea when it is down under. " Can you really be that disconnected to not realize that all of this big ball we call Earth turns and tilts at the same time?... making the Southern hemishere the opposite of the Nothern. Guess they quit teaching that in school. I didn't realize I was that old.
Regards,
Greg Young
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Today the sun rose at 4:20am (ish) and we make sure to avoid the traffic jams at Stonehenge on route to work! We were still gardening at 10pm last week too.
Best solstice was when we did a dawn sail, starting at 4am and watched the sun rise over the lake whilst sailing. Then into the clubhouse for a Full English Breakfast.
By the way, best Christmas lights display - drive past Stonehenge at sunset on the shortest day and get full sun lined up through centre. No crowds at winter solstice either!
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Exactly - in Australia it's the shortest day of the year (of course).
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In addition to latitude, how far west one resides within his time zone influences time sunset. Seattle gets sort of wobbled west this time of year. It always amazed me how much longer it stays light compared to Los Angeles, where I used to travel frequently.
There are numerous globe programs out there that account for time of year and pretty accurately indicate "where the sun don't shine".
Anyway, I plan to be out in the gardens myself. Likely past 10!
Oh, and I need help understanding how Spain's longest day is on a different day than the rest of the northern hemisphere. Mountain ranges, perhaps?
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thoughts and musings...
There's summer and then there's summer...Anchorage is reputed to have almost 24 hours
of daylight today...whereas if you go far south enough...you'd get equal hours of darkness..and then there're all those seasonal disorders that're associated with these extreme swings..
My time in the Netherlands that I remember most is the summer when you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 11 am and 11 pm - shortlived but wonderful. And then there're the Indian summers where you can almost feel yourself melting into a pool - where in some places it's 100 degrees in the shade - the crazy madness of a midsummer night's dream when fairy queens fall in love with donkeys - and isn't summer solstice when witches are out in full force brewing potions and weaving spells...
PJones - solstice and stonehenge are a match made in heaven - and it's on your "way to work" - how lucky can you get ?! Many of us have to lighten our pockets considerably to be able to just go visit - ever seen any druids in passing ?!
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
PJones - just to let you know that I asked you a question and got it answered on Yahoo just now...here're snippets...
About 19,000 New Agers, present-day druids and partygoers gathered inside and around the ancient circle of towering stones to greet the longest day in the northern hemisphere as the sun struggled to peek out against a smoky gray sky. Meadows, wearing a wreath of pink carnations over long pink hair-wrapped braids, identified herself as a fairy of the Tribe of Frog. In 1985, revelers clashed violently with police at the solstice ceremony, resulting in a ban on the celebration. Following years saw clashes between riot police and revelers determined to welcome the solstice among the stones. English Heritage, the monument's caretaker, began allowing full access to the site again in 2000. Crowds of partygoers stumbled toward their cars an hour after sunrise, some clutching nearly empty bottles or beer cans. One described the crowd as 5 percent pagan and 95 percent partygoer. Sargent, clad in a long black jacket and pants, top hat and fighter pilot goggles, drank vodka and Coke from a two-liter soda bottle and confessed he was "really stoned." Groups of tourists, some from France, Italy and Spain, joined British revelers. Daniel Estera, 25, flew from Barcelona for one night at the solstice with 15 friends.
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Hi all
Well, yesterday may have been the longest day, but for those of us in Glasgow, Scotland, the end couldn't come quickly enough. Battering wind, driving rain - just a typical summer's day in the West of Scotland (for the unititiated, there is often a marked difference in the weather from west to east, even in such a small country).
I went as far as my local shops and back, giving up on my umbrella somewhere along the way.
Cheers!
Denise
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My logic seemed to indicate summer solstice in the northern hemisphere equates to winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. But before posting I used my favorite DBA reasource - Google and found ...
another URL from the same site:
http://geography.about.com/cs/calendarsseason/a/winter.htm
Excerpt:
December 21 is called the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and simultaneously the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. On June 21 the solstices are reversed and summer begins in the northern hemisphere.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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I love summer! I should have a sister in Australia (like someone I know of) so I would be spending our winters there.
I was lucky it was the longest day with the longest daylight! I spent it trying to help my relatives who just moved to get them set up with the Electric and the Gas companies. While there was no problems with the Gas Company, we had to perform lots of activities for the Electric Company and we are not set up yet (means, no light)
Regards,Yelena Varsha
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Yelena - In India I grew up seeing people go through this ritual called "Surya Namaskar" which literally means "Sun Salutation" - people would wake up at the crack of dawn - go up to their rooftop terraces and do their exercises (much like tai chi in HongKong etc.) - you sound like a definite sun worshipper to me!
As much as you love summers I hate them...I go crawling into the darkest, coolest corner I can find and don't emerge until it is dark...I must have a lot of bat kins..
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!**
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