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True polar night is limited to latitudes above roughly 84° 34' North or South, which is exactly 18° within the polar circles, or approximately five and a half degrees from the poles. The only permanent settlement on Earth at these latitudes is the Amundsen–Scott scientific research station in Antarctica , whose winter personnel are ...
With an apparent magnitude that fluctuates around 1.98, [3] it is the brightest star in the constellation and is readily visible to the naked eye at night. [15] The position of the star lies less than 1° away from the north celestial pole , making it the current northern pole star .
Sigma Octantis is the closest near naked-eye star to the south celestial pole, but at apparent magnitude 5.47 it is barely visible on a clear night, making it less useful for casual navigational or astronomy alignment purposes. [14] [15] It is a yellow giant 294 light years from Earth. Its angular separation from the pole is about 1° (as of 2000).
Blomdahl is currently at the start of the annual “polar night,” a nearly three-month period during which her little corner of the globe receives almost no sunlight due to the tilt of the Earth.
Locations where the Sun remains less than 6 (or 7 [4]) degrees below the horizon – between about 60° 34’ (or 59° 34’) latitude and the polar circle – experience midnight twilight [5] instead of midnight sun, so that daytime activities, such as reading, are still possible without artificial light on a clear night.
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During the six-month polar night, air temperatures can drop below −73 °C (−99 °F) and blizzards are more frequent. Between these storms, and regardless of the weather for wavelengths unaffected by drifting snow, the roughly 5 + 3 ⁄ 4 months of ample darkness and dry atmosphere make the station an excellent site for astronomical ...
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