THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249     www.usm.maine.edu/planet
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70 Falmouth Street     Portland, Maine  04103
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43.6667° N                   70.2667° W
Altitude:   10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date:  24586770.5
                "Everybody who takes the bull by the horns dies."
                               -Zoological defense of apathy


THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Tuesday. July 16, 2019
North Pole Night

We return today to Pandora's Jar for a interesting question about the North
Pole.

*"Is it true that the North Pole has exactly six months of day and six
months of night?" *
*-M.C,   Windham, ME*

Greetings!
Not exactly.
Let's see what's happening now:

The Sun is now descending in the North Pole sky.     While this descent is
indicative of a maturing summer, one needn't despair quite yet.    The Sun
won't set at the world's apex until late September.   Even then, a
pervasive crimson dusk will illuminate the most northern of skies for more
than a fortnight.  All the while, this 24-hour dusk will gradually dim:
vibrant pink fading into cool gray as the orbiting Earth shifts the North
Pole away from the Sun.   The sky remains visibly luminous, though
increasingly less so, through October.  Meanwhile, bright stars  will
slowly appear, the most brilliant ones first, such as Vega, Arcturus and
Betelgeuse.  By late October the dimmer stars, such as the most famous one,
Polaris, emerges.   By early November, the North Pole is steeped in a
darkness which sunlight will not penetrate until early February, when
Earth's northern hemisphere will have inclined itself back toward the Sun
enough to allow the first insinuations of light into the North Pole night.
  By late February, the brightening twilight will obscure the stars.
 Just before the equinox, the Sun's upper limb will protrude above the
horizon.  Over the course of the next 51 hours,  the entire Sun will slowly
rise until the entire disc becomes visible.  It will remain above the
horizon until just after the autumnal equinox, when the Sun will set again
over 51 hours.

So, daylight at the North Pole lasts more than six months if you include
the twilight periods just before and just after sunset.      The North Pole
night, when it is completely dark, truly lasts slightly more than three
months.