The rise and fall of the sun is gradual. Very gradual. Over a period of weeks to months. If you arrive at Mainbody it’s already light 24 hours a day. At midnight it’s bright twilight as the sun is just below the horizon. Somewhere at the end of October it rises a full 24 hours a day until the end of Feb. From Feb to April we have sun in the day and dark at night with it getting darker longer each day. At the end of April the sun goes down for good but it’s still bright twilight at noon. Somewhere around mid May, you go to lunch and notice that it is finally getting pretty dark at lunchtime. From then till the end of july it’s just plain dark all the time. The greatest day of darkness is the solstice on June 21’st The sun comes back up at the end of August and the cycle repeats. If you can get up high and look to the north there is always some faint light on the northern horizon at lunch, but at Mcmurdo we have hills surrounding us that block the view. It just looks dark to us.
For all you previous winterovers, yesterday we could see a noticable glow on the horizon at lunch. The sun is on it’s way back up.
M