I've noticed that my readership numbers are lower in summer, often only half as much as usual.  Bearing in mind I only launched in Spring, there was a noticeable drop as we hit (especially) July and now August.  With my non-science web column, I've noticed the same trend.  It's the flip side to the 'September Effect', when most sites get a sudden surge in visitors as incoming collegiate freshmen suddenly have free, unstructured time and fast web access.

The Summer Effect is a mix of schools being out of session and people being away on vacation.  Most particularly, schools being out of session.  With no classes to ignore or homework to avoid, why do aimless web surfing at all?  One can instead have a rich outdoor life!  So I can't blame people for not visiting my column as often during the summer.

However, rest assured that I will never slacken my efforts nor take 'the easy route' when keeping to my arbitrarily-created-yet-staunchly-kept-to twice/weekly column schedule here.  Because I'm not just here for me, I'm here for you.

Well, except today.  Actually, I wrote this ahead of time.  Right now, I'm out camping.  So today, even I am not reading my column.

Alex, the daytime astronomer