Short Days, Long Nights

The days are getting shorter as winter approaches. At their shortest, the days will be only about nine hours long here in Vermont. But things could be worse. Much worse.

At the northernmost town in the United States, Barrow, Alaska, the Sun is about to go to sleep for two months. At noon today, it's just on the horizon. By next week it won't rise at all, not until the end of January.

For two months, the four thousand people who live in Barrow will be in total darkness. That part of the Earth containing Barrow is now pointed away from the Sun. The Earth will have to travel a hundred million miles in its orbit for the people in Barrow to catch even a glimpse of the sun. And that will take two months.

Whatıs the sky like in Barrow, with its 24 hours of night? Is it a stargazers dream? Well, no. For the most part, the not-so-bright stars of the north are circling overhead -- the Little Dipper, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, blazing for us, hardly gets above the horizon there. The same is true for the planet Saturn, and no other planet is ever visible.

The Moon barely climbs above the horizon. Orion the hunter, king of the winter skies here, standing majestically high in the south, is so low there that the smallest hill would obscure it. And, of course, itıs bitterly cold. Maybe our fifteen hour nights are long enough. Maybe we should be content with our nine hours of daylight.

(11/08/06)