One Endless Night

1/15/05 – 1/21/06

By C. Zaitz

I was standing on the beach in Port Austin looking north recently. Lake Huron was still and calm, and there were very few folks disturbing the quiet at the tip of Michigan’s Thumb. The sun was trying to burn through the clouds, but it was low in the sky. There was a pale cool light filtering onto the beach where I had been drenched in sunlight just months earlier. I looked out over the still water and imagined the lands further to the north. Places where the sun wasn’t even above the horizon. The lands of one endless night, when the sun sets on September 21st and doesn’t rise again until the Vernal Equinox in March. These are the places where darkness reigns twenty four hours a day. When I pondered this idea, I became grateful for the meager light reflecting off the snow near my feet.

I wondered how far would I have to walk to get to a place where the sun was always below the horizon. Would it be somewhere out in Lake Huron or near the North Pole? I would have to walk north to a latitude of about 64 degrees. (66.5 degrees on the solstice.) Here in Dearborn Heights we are at 42 degrees, but in Port Austin I was at 44 degrees. Each degree of latitude is roughly about 70 miles. I’d have to walk 20 degrees of latitude, or…1400 miles? Jeepers, I had my old boots on and just one Kleenex in my pocket- I’d never make it!

As the cold penetrated my boots, I thought about turning around and walking south. How far would I have to go until the sun would be directly over my head? This would seem to be a more worthwhile journey. But in the winter time, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and even at the equator the sun doesn’t get overhead at noon. I’d have to go south of the equator, to a latitude of about 20 degrees south. (23.5 degrees south on the solstice.) If a degree is 70 miles, then this journey is going to take awhile…let’s see, about 64 degrees of latitude to walk, that’s only…4480 miles. Hmm…perhaps I’d better fly!

Of course, I wouldn’t have to go all the way to Rio De Janeiro (23 degrees south) to feel warmer- I could stop off in Miami or Key West. At a latitude of about 25 degrees north, the sun would be nearly 20 degrees higher in the sky than in Port Austin. Right now the sun reaches its highest altitude at 24 degrees, but adding 20 degrees to that, we end up with an altitude of 44 degrees. That’s more like March than January. And with warm ocean breezes, I think I could live with that!

Then I remembered that I’m an astronomer and I should really head to the lands of the endless night, where I can gaze at the stars all night and all day. So I turned back to the north and looked once more, until my toes started to go numb and decided that perhaps the journey of a thousand miles begins with a cup of hot chocolate back at the cottage.

Later after the sun set, I saw Mars glowing in the southern sky and Saturn rising in the east, and in the morning as I let the dog out over some freshly fallen snow I caught a glimpse of Jupiter in the southeastern sky, nearly hidden by high clouds but still shining through.

Until next week, my friends, enjoy the beautiful view!