Waiting to watch the midnight sun
The midnight sun was disappointing. The night without darkness is fascinating, but as for the sun itself, it doesn't dip down and up again like a V. It rather gets lower and closer to the horizon, then higher again, but most of the slow motion is from north-west to north-east. We saw it in the far north in May, over the sea. So there was no point of reference we could mark as the true north, or notice the lowest point.At the point were we watched we were far east in north Norway – the longitude lines get narrower until they meet at the pole – we were told that midnight is at 3 AM. So we sat on the deck of the ship from 2:30 to 3:30 AM, and decided that it was long over, without us noticing anything impressive.It probably is more dramatic at a time and place where the sun just dips under the horizon and comes out again. But for that you need the right place, the right date and no clouds....
