11.11.2013

A Strange New World


Photo by Chad Blakley/Lights Over Lappland
Abisko National Park, November 9

Oh so joyously, I will soon be off to some of the furthest northern reaches of the European continent to see the aurora borealis and enjoy meeting one of the world's favorite cities, Berlin.

While doing research for the trip this morning, I ran across some fascinating data - sunrise and sunset times for the region of Sweden that I'm planning to visit in December (Kiruna and Abisko):

                                               Sunrise           Sunset              
                          November     7:50am          2:55pm
                          December    10:14am        12:41pm
                          January          - Sun does not rise -

The sentence "Sun does not rise" really got my attention.  It will be very interesting to adapt to so little daylight.

I've included here two photos by a fellow named Chad Blakley.  Chad and his wife run an extremely well thought of tour company out of Abisko that takes photographers out into the wilderness of the immense Abisko National Park to photograph the aurora.  I've signed up for a tour not long after I arrive and I look very forward to tromping around the majestic Arctic park in the darkness of night.

Photo by Chad Blakley/Lights Over Lappland
Abisko National Park, November 7

If you enjoy photographs of the aurora borealis like I do, you should periodically visit the Space Weather aurora gallery.  It's a real time archive of auroras the world over.  Chad's photos appear there regularly.


And if you'd like to get some vague notion of where Abisko is, here's a map:


And if you're a map geek, here'a link to the Google Map:  Abisko, Sweden

I need to go pull out my parka and snow pants!  Just a little over two weeks away.  Yahoooo!

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