Summer officially arrives at 11:54 a.m. this morning. It is that calculated moment when the sun reaches the farthest north in its apparent journey along the zodiac. The day is the longest of the year, consequently night is very short.

 

On Martha’s Vineyard, as the sunrise and sunset tables show, sunrise is 5:07 a.m. and sunset is at 8:19 p.m. From here on the days will get shorter.

 

As astronomers continue to look into the skies for planets in the universe that might support life, this earth continues to demonstrate a unique happy mix of light, darkness, temperature and more.

 

With changing seasons our earth continues to demonstrate life is sustainable from the North Pole to the South Pole. Not too hot and not too cold; not too sunny and not too dark. Were we to be poised in our orbit around the Sun without a tilted axis in our daily spinning, without seasons, this planet would be a lot less friendly to life.