Don't miss the chance to check out the 'Super Moon' on Sunday night

My trusty calendar tells me that tomorrow (Friday) will be the first official day of summer with the summer solstice occurring at 12:04 a.m. Many of you will remember from your high school science classes that the summer solstice is the longest day of the year. That’s not to say that the day is more than 24 hours long, but only that we receive more daylight on that day than any other day of the year.

The summer solstice is one of two solstices on the calendar each year with the other being its exact opposite, the winter solstice. The winter solstice marks the first official day of winter and is the shortest day of the year. The two solstices, along with the two equinoxes on the calendar, tell us when the four seasons of the year begin and end.

This coming Monday, June 24, will be Midsummer Day, which obviously does not mark the middle of summer as its name seems to indicate. Back in the old days, Midsummer Day, which usually falls around the summer solstice, marked the halfway point between planting and harvesting. This was always a good excuse for farmers to have a big party, and, as you might remember from English class, William Shakespeare made all of this famous in his classic comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

In the old days, Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Day were good times to have a wedding. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the events in the story are set around the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Even for a play written in the 1590s, it’s hilarious, and if you ever get the chance to see it, do so, especially if you find it on the schedule at the Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery.

Also, if you find yourself out in the yard on Sunday night take a few minutes to look up at the moon. If we have clear skies, you should be able to see what’s called the Full Strawberry Moon or “Super Moon,” which is the closest and largest full moon of the year. The moon will look bigger than usual because it’s at perigee, that is, it’ll be the closest to Earth in its orbit until the next perigee, which isn’t scheduled to happen again until August 2014.

On Sunday, the moon will rise at 8:12 p.m. and will set at 5:52 a.m. It’s no telling how all of this will affect our local, freshwater fishermen, but if you plan to go deep sea fishing on that day, you can certainly expect a high tide thanks to the Super Moon. They’ll get a double whammy if it’s windy, which might really mess up the chance to catch a big fish.

Who is to say what kind of summer we have to look forward to? I suspect it’ll be real hot, but that should go without saying. Our long range forecast calls for a fair amount of rain with the threat of tropical storms developing in the Gulf of Mexico.