Summer starts when???

OK - I suppose you've all been looking at my RANT about losing this original post... mostly what I was talking about was the different DATES I'd come across as for when the Summer Solstice or "First Day" of Summer actually was.

Part of that was inspired by this photo, and of course the time of year. However, now that it's come and gone (awhile ago actually, as I write this it's mid-July) there doesn't seem to be much point.

These two photos were leading up to the one above, and a good example of how, by being patient and waiting until AFTER the Sun has actually gone down that the real color starts to appear.


Now, the "some facts that I’ve been reading about" were just that... things I'd come across here and there while trying to figure out when the actual Solstice was to transpire. I found them interesting, and thought others might too...

The sun is more excited now than in the past 1,150 years.

Solar cycle #24 will be the most violent ever (peaking in 2012) and Mercury’s magnetic field is expanding as a result

Venus is displaying a brightness that’s 2500% greater than normal.
Mars & Earth are showing great global warming (there are no cars on Mars).

Jupiter’s plasma clouds are 200% brighter.

Saturn’s jet streams are acting uncharacteristically.

Uranus is creating clouds with an ability to not do so!

Neptune has shown a 40% increase in brightness since 1996.

Pluto has increased 3.6 degress F even while moving away from the sun.

"It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them." Pierre Beaumarchais