Living in the "Land of the Midnight Sun" ... Almost!

Even on the "longest day of the year," the sun sets just before midnight in Anchorage, at 11:43pm... but "sunset" doesn't mean it is actually dark here! On June 20th, we had 19 hours, 22 minutes, and 28 seconds of daylight - the time between the sunrise and the sunset. The remaining few hours are considered to be "civil twilight" because the sun is not more than 6 degrees below our horizon. Today, we lose 17 seconds of daylight, when compared to yesterday. By the end of June, we will lose almost 2 minutes of daylight when compared to the previous day.

The chart above is from http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html. It is only valid for Anchorage... places to the south have less "light" than ANC and places north have more right now. For example, the sun will set tonight in Fairbanks at 12:48am and rise again at 2:58am. The sun in Juneau sets tonight at 10:08pm.

I took this picture on June 19th, the night before the "longest day," while standing outside our door. It was about 11:15pm and the sun it about to set behind the trees to my northwest.

I love this picture! I took this from our driveway, looking east 11:15pm on June 19th. The sun is setting behind me.