The Midnight Sun
There's no off switch
After crossing into the Arctic Circle, we entered a special region of our planet. The Arctic Circle line marks the lowest point on our globe that gets 24 hours without a sunset on the summer solstice (and 24 hours with no sunrise on the winter solstice). We were only a few weeks shy of the summer solstice, so the farther north we sailed, the more daylight we got to enjoy.
Eventually we were treated to a constant nighttime near-sunset of rosy-orange light. It was difficult to get to bed when we had such dazzling images of sunset light playing on nearby mountaintops and crepuscular rays beaming through the clouds.
For the most part we had no trouble adjusting our internal clocks. We generally followed the same schedule of meals and activities, although we both wore sleep masks because there was no keeping out the all-night sun.
All of the images below were taken during three consecutive nights above the Arctic Circle, when the sun never dipped below our horizon. Although some look like daytime phots, they were all shot between roughly midnight and 1:15 a.m.!
Magnificent! I always wondered what that would be like. I didn't expect it to be orange, but I guess the sun is still low on the horizon so it makes sense you'd get the filtered colors of dawn/dusk. Locals must learn to just follow the clock instead of our Wisconsin farm ethic: if the sun's up, you should be out there doing something! (We like our winters too, when it's dark at 4pm and God is literally telling us to just go inside and take a nap....)
These are wonderful pictures, it’s so light outside between midnight and 1:00 am. I just couldn’t imagine it without the pictures. Thank you for sharing and narrating too!!