Sunset - March 22nd. The sun won't rise for 183 days.

The view out my berthing window to the geographic Pole. Look for the big flag between the two building on the left. 

The sun set for the one and only time this year on March 22nd at 6:41pm. We did not get to see it because it was unbelievably cloudy that day. Around 3 days later, the clouds finally broke and we had some amazing colors on the horizon. We won't see the sun again for 183 days when it comes up around the fall equinox - September 21st or 22nd.

 Looking out to our skiway (runway for planes with skis).

A diagram that helps explain why the polar regions have extended periods without sunrises or sunsets.

I thought sunrise and sunset would be like McMurdo where the sun rose and set each day for a month or so before dropping behind the horizon for good. However, because the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to the path of its orbit around the Sun, the North and South Poles only get one sunset a year.

Before sunset - March 20/21st

I just found a few lost photos from just before sunset on March 22nd. 

 

The first one is from March 20th, two days before sunset. The sun was hugging the horizon and we were looking like we were going to have an amazing display of colors. Instead, about 16 hours after that first photo, a storm rolled in. No colors, no visibility, no nada.

 

March 20th

March 21st

It's been a tough week. At the start of the week, I was feeling sick and scaled my workouts way back. Then, we had a bunch of network changes that caused a ton of extra work. In the long term, it will be worth it. In the short term, I'm tired. Just as we wrapped up those network changes, we lost power for the third time since I arrived here in February. The power plant generators are being fixed and improved for the long haul, but there have been some hiccups along the way. I am really grateful to have finally arrived at the weekend.  My weekend kicked off with a movie and winning trivia with Mark D and Andrew W.