The Midnight Sun

Judith dragged me kicking and screaming from a warm bed,
but it was good (in the end).

On the night of June 20th, we got up in the 'night' to see the midnight sun.  The time at which the Sun actually hits due north was not midnight, however, because of daylight savings time plus the fact that Eagle Plains is fairly far west in the pacific time zone.  Consequently, the sun is due north at about 2:07 AM.  We were concerned first of all that we wouldn't see anything because of surrounding hills and secondly an unobscured sun would not show up on my little camera very well.  We had nothing to fear on both counts though -- what an amazing sight!!  Richard will add some comments about his efforts to be certain as to where true north actually was, but in the series of pictures below, it's just to the left of the little sharp peak.  The photos were taken between about 2:05 and 2:20 AM.

So what amazed me without some thought is that at the solstice the sun rises and sets together at true north.
I came running out with my compass to find the midnight sun about 20 degrees west of magnetic north.
After some thought all was well since the local declination is about 23 degrees (theoretician's error) east of true north.
This was truly a sight to remember for the `bucket list'.