An interesting one to look up is Barrow, Alaska because of its extreme northerly latitude. There are no sunrise/sunset times listed until January 23 and for November 18 and beyond as the sun is never seen above the horizon. From May 11 to August 2 they are in continual sunlight.
[sup]*[/sup]Times adjusted to reflect DST.
Edingburg Scotland; years. I don’t know the exact times off hand, but I’ve been able to read in open countryside at midnight with no lights anywhere nearby. The darkest time would have been about 1.10am. The sun is still up after 10pm.
Without getting into the whole GMT/time adjustment thing, I have just used the figures given in the table according to my latitude & longitude.
Sunrise: 3.45am
Sunset: 8.25pm
That gives me a whole 16hrs and 30mins to celebrate one of the central days in the Pagan calendar. Might even trot along to Stonehenge, as it’s just up the road.
Sorry, my drunken posting wasn’t very helpful. According to the table in Edinburgh we get 17 hrs and 37 minutes of daylight at the summer solstice. That drops to a paltry 6 hours and 57 minutes in winter.
When I went to bed at 1 am last night (the darkest time) there was a distinct glow in the north, which is more or less where there sun rises and sets at this time of year. It never gets properly dark. The flipside of this is that I’ve seen days in winter when the red glow never fully left the sky even at noon.
I’ve experienced all-night day light in Lapland; it’s a great experience.
Even though I can look on a map or a globe, it really doesn’t hit me how far north or south someone is. The lengths of Solstices, though… that’s telling.
G. Od, I understood your first post. Found it really helpful in picturing what longer daylight would feel like.
Seattle, WA
16 hours (5:11am to 9:11 that night. PDT) Plus twilight, so it’s light forever!
Sucks in the winter (shortest day is 8:25 of sunlight), but summer is amazing.
That’d be…adjusting for daylight savings…5:57 and 9:15. So, really, only 15+ hours.
Sure seems like full daylight at 5 am and 10 pm though, which is why I didn’t bother to check my math. I just assumed the sun was actually up at those times. (The birds in the tree out my window in the morning think so. Damned noisy birds.)
Boy I hate the winters here, when you leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark.
Here is the data for my wife’s home town (Belém, Brazil):
Summer solstice:
Sunrise: 6:15 AM
Sunset: 6:17 PM
Winter Solstice:
Sunrise: 6:06 AM
Sunset: 6:18 PM
Now that’s nice and steady. Not unusual considering the latitude of 1°28’ South. Also, at that latitude there is not really any twilight. It’s as if someone just turns off a big light switch in the sky. It can be really strange if it is bright daylight outside, you’re busy doing something, and you look out the window 15 minutes later and it’s pitch black.