Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Solstice


Today is the longest day of the year, 20 hours of sunlight! (photo of yesterday's sunset) Anchorage is at about the same latitude as St. Petersburg, Russia. Through the course of the day the sun does not rise and set, as seen in the lower 48. Instead it travels in almost a circular or an elliptical pattern across the sky, just dipping below the horizon around midnight. At night, it is not dark enough to see stars.

3 comments:

  1. What's the temp there? Here, on the summer solstice, I had several conversations about how "summer" just officially began, but it's been miserably hot for several weeks already. Ah, southern living :)
    Angie

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  2. Today has been one of the warmer days since I've been here. In the Mat-Su valley (where the towns are), its in the upper 60s. In the mountains its in the upper 50s. At higher altitudes its just beginning to get green and flowers are starting to bloom.

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  3. Dan what kind of light formations can you see up there when it's not light all the damn time?

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