Friday, June 10, 2011

The day when sun never sets

Taking pictures of the sunrise or the sunset in June is not quite as easy as one might think. At least here in Very Northern Florida that could mean you'd have to stay up quite late. We're so near the Arctic circle that the sun stays up most of the night.

For example, yesterday the sunrise was at 02:35 (2:35 PM) and the sunset didn't happen at all. Yesterdays sunset happened after the midnight, ie. today. So for about two and half hours the sun is not visible, it just lurks behind the horizon. It doesn't get very dark even then.

Here's a shot of the sightseeing tower at a camping site. Notice the people in the tower, taking pictures of the sunset. It had been a very warm day, with temperatures nearing almost +30°C. It was about 11pm and there were still people playing beach volley and walking on the beach.

There was the bicycling week a few weeks ago. Part of the celebration of the week was the bicycle scavenger hunt. There was a dozen photos. You were supposed to find the location in the photo and get a code word. Collect enough locations and you're in a raffle.

This tower was one of the locations.

Sunset from the tower. Maybe I should take a time lapse to show how the sun moves almost sideways. The black spot up from the sun is either a bird or a dust specle in the lens of my camera.



The sun is almost at the horizon, and the trees and other buildings block the sun except for the very top floors of the white highrises. The funfair has arrived to town, too.

Here's a shot showing the dam bridge. The sun is behind the trees, but has not set yet. I think this was taken about 11:30pm, half an hour before the sunset.

2 comments:

  1. Hm, that must feel weird to see the sun almost the whole night. Is the water warm enough to swim in in summer? How about bugs? Do you have lots of mosquitos?

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  2. Oh, it's the other way around: when I'm traveling south in the summer, it's weird when it gets dark at night :-)

    It's not very long ago I took photos of chunks of ice floating down the river. But with the sun shining all day, the rivers and lakes have warmed up already, and people are swimming in them. Looking at a forecast, surface temp for lakes around here is +18C. The sea will stay a few degrees colder.

    As for mosquitos, this is a coastal town. Both because there's drainage everywhere (no places for the larvae to grow) and because there's often a wind, there's remarkably few mosquitos here. Even with parks and trees everywhere. Go inland, into a forest or a swamp (we have plenty of both :-) and you'll find 'friends'.

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