40. The longest night of the White Nights
June 21 was the summer solstice this year. That is not the "longest day of the year" as many people think. Technically, every day of the year is the exact same duration: 24 hours, or if you're an astronomer / trivia nerd, 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. The solstice is in fact the day that has more sunlight than any other day of the year, and it also marks the official start of summer. In a place as far north as St. Petersburg, the day with the most sunlight is a day with quite a lot of sunlight indeed. Basically, the twilight never goes away because the sun doesn't dip too far below the horizon. All night long, it looks as if the sun set 10 minutes ago or is about to rise in another 10 minutes.
I've already talked a bit about the White Nights here. This week has been the peak of White Nights, and it has been noteworthy in the extreme amount of daylight. It's still light when I go to sleep at 11:00 or 11:30, and it's light if I happen to awake in the middle of the night. The sun does technically set for five hours, but it never gets especially dark during that time even though sunrise doesn't officially happen until around 3:30 am.
I've had no trouble sleeping; two sets of heavy curtains on my bedroom windows block all the light. Although, I have found that it's difficult to go to bed on time, especially on the weekends, because there's no cue from nightfall to help your body's natural rhythms shift toward sleep. Perhaps it's just a conditioned aversion to getting in bed when it looks like it's still daytime.
On June 23, most of the city stayed awake all night long for the Scarlet Sails celebration, which is the culmination of the White Nights events schedule and a very popular event for locals, Russian tourists from other cities, and international tourists alike (more on that soon). I thought it would be interesting to document what exactly the sky looks like throughout the night while I was out and about in the city during Scarlet Sails, just two days following the solstice. So, here's evidence of just how bright it stays in St. Petersburg during the (almost) longest night of the White Nights:
10:00 PM (the Bronze Horseman) --
11:00 PM (on Dvortsoviy Bridge) --
12:00 AM --
1:00 AM (Scarlet Sails!) --
1:20 AM (Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral) --
2:15 AM (Griboyedov Channel and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood) --
2:30 AM (Anichkov Bridge) --
2:35 AM (Fontanka River, with the Anichkov Bridge in the distance) --
3:27 AM (Back at the Tolstoy House. I guess it's time to go to sleep???) --
I've already talked a bit about the White Nights here. This week has been the peak of White Nights, and it has been noteworthy in the extreme amount of daylight. It's still light when I go to sleep at 11:00 or 11:30, and it's light if I happen to awake in the middle of the night. The sun does technically set for five hours, but it never gets especially dark during that time even though sunrise doesn't officially happen until around 3:30 am.
I've had no trouble sleeping; two sets of heavy curtains on my bedroom windows block all the light. Although, I have found that it's difficult to go to bed on time, especially on the weekends, because there's no cue from nightfall to help your body's natural rhythms shift toward sleep. Perhaps it's just a conditioned aversion to getting in bed when it looks like it's still daytime.
On June 23, most of the city stayed awake all night long for the Scarlet Sails celebration, which is the culmination of the White Nights events schedule and a very popular event for locals, Russian tourists from other cities, and international tourists alike (more on that soon). I thought it would be interesting to document what exactly the sky looks like throughout the night while I was out and about in the city during Scarlet Sails, just two days following the solstice. So, here's evidence of just how bright it stays in St. Petersburg during the (almost) longest night of the White Nights:
12:00 AM --
1:20 AM (Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral) --
2:30 AM (Anichkov Bridge) --
2:35 AM (Fontanka River, with the Anichkov Bridge in the distance) --
3:27 AM (Back at the Tolstoy House. I guess it's time to go to sleep???) --
Comments
Post a Comment