Monday, May 28, 2007

Sunrise, sunset

I've always been a little fascinated over what time the sun sets in a certain place. How it's different all around the world. At around this time of the year, the sun sets at 7pm in Hong Kong. I looked it up and today the sun is supposed to set at around 6:08pm in Manila.

Growing up in the Philippines, the sun was always up at 6ish and set around 6ish 12 hours later. There really was no appreciable difference between the summer months and the wet months. Sure, sometimes you felt days were "longer". But they were longer by about half an hour either way; nothing like the way days get really long as you move away from the equator.

Today the sun will set at 9pm in Paris and 8:15pm in NY. Isn't that fascinating? (Am I the only one that finds this so cool? The experience of sunset (i.e. the concept of "the end of the day") is different depending on where you live. In Manila, darkness means the end of the work day. You assume that's how that is everywhere else in the world, but it's simply not the case. Winding down and rest does not necessarily occur at "night".)

When I was in Russia during their summer months, the sun never really set. At midnight it finally became like dusk, and it stayed that way till 3 or 4 am (after which the sun would rise again). I know this because one night Chum and I actually stayed up to watch the sun (well, actually we stayed up to take a midnight cruise along the Neva, but staying up to watch solar patterns sounds cooler).

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