6 Month Long Day and 6 Month Long Time

We all know that at poles, the duration of a day or a night is not like rest of the world. Both the poles, South as well North, do not follow 24-hour cycle. The day continues for 6 long months and so is the night. When I was preparing myself (mentally), I somehow got a notion that the Sun will be at the top of the head and would remain like that for next 4 months, and then would start to descend towards west for its once a year sunset. After coming here I realized what a foolish notion I had. In fact, at Maitri (the Indian station) the sun sets every day in west to rise again from east. We follow GMT here which is five and a half hours behind the IST. At about 6 PM GMT the sun is seen to be setting in the west, and by 7 the sun disappears completely. However, there is no darkness, and for next 8-9 hours the light is like dusk as of 7-7:30 PM in Delhi summer. By about 2 AM, the sun becomes visible again with bright sunshine.

At the exact South Pole area, there is 4-month long night between May and August, and then the sun shines for 4 months during November to February. In between these months, the duration of day and night increases. At the Indian station which is 2500 KM away from the South Pole in north-east, December-January are months of 24 hour long day, and towards end of January the sun sets for the first time but only for 4 minutes. The duration of night then starts increasing by 8 min everyday when in March, the day and night is of 12 hours each. May to July are months of total darkness after which the sun reappears, and it does not rise from the East as we have always known and believed, but rises from the North direction ! The first day is of 4 min only, and then sun sets again in North direction only. By September, the duration of day and night is again of 12-12 hours. Then the length of the day starts increasing, and by November-end, it is 24-hour day.