Sunburst Chairs on the Terracec

A bit of a sunburst to celebrate the sun. Summer begins – TONIGHT!

June 20-21 is one of two solstices, days when the rays of the sun directly strike one of the two tropical latitude lines. June 21 marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. This year the solstice occurs and summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on June 20 at 6:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

This is the first time since 1896 – 112 years – that the summer solstice occurs before June 21. The time for the recording is measured at 11:59 pm Greenwich Mean Time on June 20. Made it by a minute!

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These are the famous, nearly landmark status chairs on the Memorial Union Terrace at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The terrace overlooks one of the city’s urban lakes, Lake Mendota, and is the place to be on lovely summer evenings. Everyone in the Madison area who has a camera and is co-ordinated enough to press the shutter has at least one photo of these chairs. They are so darn photogenic!