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.