Sun sets on Europe’s far north

The sun is already gone at North Cape, the northernmost island of Norway on the Barents Sea coast.

For Kirkenes and Tromsø, the sun will slightly be over the horizon on Monday, wasn’t it for the snowy weather forecast. Some few more days, and the sun will not rise either in Murmansk, the world’s largest city above the Arctic Circle.

For the locals, the coming two months is called the blue-color period. Although no sun, the varieties of blue in the color spectrophotometer is magic. Many of the best winter night photos are taken in precisely this blue color light. 

The darkest day is winter solstice, between December 21 and 22.

So why is the sun away? It’s all due to the tilt of the earth where the polar hemisphere faces away from the sun in the winter. In summer, areas north of the Arctic Circle has the opposite effect, namely Midnight sun, when the sun never set.

Right now, you have to go to the central Antarctica to see the Midnight sun.