In Seattle, the furthest north “major” city in the US - sunrise at 7:51, sunset at 4:18. The sun will hit 19°
Of course we notice it, it’s dark all the time and with cloud cover, it never gets actually light outside. You just kind of get used to it, learn how to cope with it, and spend an obnoxious amount of time on festivals ritually begging the sun to return. It’s nature’s way of saying to go inside and rest and relax (of course, 16ish hours of sun is nature’s way of saying to go outside and play. Nature is not supportive of standard corporate work schedules.)
It’ll be better next week.
On the other hand, it’s a good time of year for astrophotography, provided we get a clear night. During the longest days of late spring and early summer, it doesn’t get fully dark until around 10pm.
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Depending on where you are in Oregon, there’s an unlit camping/hiking/parking area at the top of Mary’s Peak, which is in one of the darkest areas still left in the United States. You can easily see the Milky Way up there on a clear night.
I also find that being in the valley increases the perception that night is coming earlier, probably because of the sun going behind the “mountains.” (Colorado people, read that as “hills.”) It seems like days last longer on the coast.
Good point. In the UK it doesn’t get fully dark from sometime in May until sometime in July. Not great for astronomy. You can see the glow of the sun under the horizon all night and in June it’s significantly light by 4am.
I spent two weeks last month on a cruise around the Norwegian Fjords. The furthest north we got was a place called Alta almost bang on 70°N on the 9th-10th November. Sunrise was 8:37, sunset at 13:43. It was amazing. We were lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis too (the main reason for going), although not from Alta, only from on board the ship somewhere in the North Sea.
I grew up near Oslo, at 60° N, so I’ve had a very varied day length all my life. As a kid I remember finding it difficult to go to sleep around midsummer when it never got dark, but when I got older it was no real problems adjusting. But come August there would be a slight sense of “What’s with it being warm weather, but it getting dark in the evening? That’s not how it should be.”
I went to university in Trondheim at 63° N, and would notice the shorter winter days (4.5 hours at solstice vs. almost 6 hours in Oslo). And I’ve been up above the polar circle and found it difficult to mentally adapt to it being truly daylight at midnight, and not “trending towards twilight” like midsummer near Oslo.
I now live far south, in Boston, MA and am by no means used to it getting dark in summer, but I notice the longer days in winter a lot less.
That’s a big “if” on the wet side though–I basically resign myself to seeing the moon maybe six times a year and pretty much never in winter. Central and eastern Oregon is a different story, of course, and the skygazing out there on the dry side with no light pollution is amazing.
I was just thinking about this on my way home from work today. It was about 18:30, and I was saddened by the thought that if it was summer, I would still have several hours of daylight left.
Daylight+twilight, we’re about 7 hours shorter at winter solstice, vs summer solstice. I am consoling myself with the thought that the turning point is in sight.
I’ve lived most of my life above 50 N and I especially just want to hibernate until April this time of year. Go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, repeat until Spring. Also, DST sucks because it’s essentially meaningless here when sunrise is 5 in the morning during the summer and sets at 2130 ish. Sunrise today, 0840, sunset 1555. Blech.
I spent 7 years in Alaska. This time of year is really dreary. Very short days and even at noon on the 18th of December it’s likely dark-ish outside because it’s snowing. Go to work in the dark, come home from work in the dark. OTOH, in the middle of June you can go into a bar after work in broad daylight, drink for 6 hours and come out of the bar in broad daylight. Nothing like playing drunk parking lot football at 2am!
I went up there to watch Hale-Bopp. As did a bunch of other people! I hadn’t considered going back for more viewing. I should, though. The problem is finding clear nights in the winter where the road to the top is clear!
We saw Hale-Bopp from a beach just west of Malibu. Coming out after dinner at a beachside restaurant, we looked up and there it was! And this was still more or less in L.A.'s light pollution zone, with numerous people driving to or from the restaurants along PCH, or simply driving straight through.
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