Polar Night

Wow. Put another log on the fire and enter the Polar night.

Polar Night from Jan R Olsen on Vimeo.
Every year in late November, above the Arctic Circle at 70˚ North, the sun disappears below the horizon and it does not reappear for almost two months
This period is called Polar Night. But even if the sun is gone, it is not totally dark. There is always some light during the day. Sometimes this light can be amazing, and you have to be there to understand how beautiful, strong and colorful it can be. But there are also days where the light is grey and colorless.
This is my first time-lapse project. As a still photographer I needed a new challenge. Since I live above the Polar Circle in Northern Norway, I chose Polar Night as my theme. My goal was to show the beauty of the light in this period.
Taking around 80 000 images in total, I used around 25 000 images for this project in addition to the two minutes of film clips. All footage are shoot locally in the Lyngen Fjord area not more than 50 km from my home. I did this in the period of November and December 2015 and January 2016.
The soundtrack is "Immanuel" by Tony Anderson, licensed from the Music Bed.

"Hymn to the Night" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Starry Night" by Edward Potthast, 1918

I heard the trailing garments of the Night

Sweep through her marble halls!

I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light

From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,

Stoop o'er me from above:

The calm, majestic presence of the Night,

As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,

The manifold, soft chimes,

That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,

Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air

My spirit drank repose:

The fountain of prepetual peace flows there--

From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy night! from thee I learn to bear

What man has borne before!

Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care

And they complain no more.

Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!

Descend with broad-winged flight,

The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,

The best-beloved Night!

Written 1839. Public Domain.

The Clouds Blow Away...

And a full moon breaks out.

I Love the Concept of a Winter Circle

From EarthSky: There are many bright stars near Jupiter in 2014. The planet lies in the midst of what we stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere know as the Winter Circle. This beautiful photo captured January 11, 2014 by EarthSky Facebook friend Duke Marsh in Kentucky. Thank you, Duke.

Star Wars Comes Alive: Time Lapse Video of the Night Sky Over Hawaii

Laser-tracking the Milky Way over 13,803 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Lasers allow the adaptive optics of the radio telescopes to remove the blurring effect of the earth's atmosphere. And they look really cool. And they make me wonder. Light years from now will someone on a distant planet be tracking these lasers as they arrive from the long-vanished Earth?

Full Moon