sholio | North sky at midnight

I happened to look out the north-facing window right around midnight and noticed the sky was being dramatic.

A dark sunset near dusk with dramatic clouds and pink color on the horizon, hints of lighter sky toward the right side of the picture

Fairbanks is quite far north - we are at 64.84N, which is very close to the Arctic Circle and, though of course the climate is different, slightly farther north than Reykjavik. We're currently in the transitional phase when we no longer have a true night - this is as dark as it gets - but the sun still rises and sets and it does get more-or-less dark(ish); however, you can follow the sun around the sky by tracking the brighter spot behind the northern hill where it sinks in the northwest, until it comes up in the northeast.

Looking west, although it's not completely dark, the sky is dim and blue:

Dusky sky with patchy clouds and dark silhouettes of trees at the bottom, a tinge of sunset color at the bottom right

In the north are the sunset colors:

Vertical image of dramatic, dark sunset skies near dusk with clouds and pink color on the horizon

And to the northeast, you can see it brightening towards the eventual dawn.

A dusky sunset sky with dramatic clouds, some pink color at the bottom left, and noticeable lightening toward the right

Also earlier today a moose ran past the window. #alaskaproblems

Something clearly startled or scared it; we're not sure what. Orion just happened to be looking out the creek-facing window at the right moment and called, "There's a moose running in the creek."

I'm like "what."

And it was! It trotted, more than galloped, along the creek, then up the hill (it is truly amazing how well they can climb, because the hill above the creek is nearly vertical; it's tough to get up it even with human limbs, let alone hooves) and eventually vanished in a tangle of willow shrubs about 2/3 of the way to the top.

We also had a brief but intense blizzard this morning, though it had melted by afternoon. May is definitely off to a very May-ish start.

Threaded | Flat

That is an excellent sky! It's starting to be noticeably longer evenings and earlier dawns now here too, though we're nowhere near as far north (about 50 degrees, I think).

And wow, moose in your garden! I have only seen them once, but they are a truly alarming size.

The sky is lovely! And the moose is such an Alaskan problem, lol!

Pretty!

That is beautiful.

Beautiful!

Very beautiful!

I went to Alaska last June, very close to the summer solstice (my cousin got married in Girdwood) and really wanted to communicate the weirdness of the Alaskan midnight to friends at home and none of my photos came even close. The fact that it was "night" but not dark -- the sun was down but not far enough for proper darkness. The Russian term "white nights" was really apropos. It was so weird.

Also, it messed with my circadian rhythm to have bright sunshine outside at like 10 p.m., lol. I was really worried about the fact that in Seward, we'd reserved a yurt Airbnb, because the yurt had a skylight at the top that we couldn't easily cover. Fortunately (?) it was very overcast the mornings we were in the yurt, so it wasn't a problem.