Midsummer and Midnight Sun

Midsummer as the Scandinavians call it, is the longest day of the year…what we as kids mugged by as the Summer Solstice. I was lucky to be in Finland this year…cause this day makes sense in these northern countries. From where we come, its just a day in the geography text book. Here its a festival!!! They celebrate this day as the beginning of Summer, of their vacations, of the time to wake up fully from the cold, cold winter and just enjoy the Sun.

I decided to visit Nordkapp or North Cape @ 71^o 10’ 21” to experience the Midnight Sun. Considered to be the northernmost point of Europe – I say considered because actually the northernmost point is Knivskjellodden which is about 1.5 kms more north of this, but this is the more touristy one, better marketed – just the entrance to the cliff costs 215NOK (which is about 30 euros). Anyways it attracts people from all over the world for its spectacular beauty. Its a cape right on top of Norway on a small island called Mageroya …a steep cliff overlooking the  Norwegian Sea.  Check out the Google Map…that was supposed to be our route, though we got a bit lost and went into Sweden….not that I regret that. But more details on the trip in another blog.

This blog is about MIDNIGHT SUN. Several conversations I have had made me realize that people have misunderstood the word Midnight Sun. Many people asked me if I captured it on camera. Earlier also people had told me to …take snaps of midnight sun for us. 

Well…I didn’t…because its not a moment that we can really capture unless we take snaps regularly for a couple of hours from the same point, same angle etc etc…  Its an experience. As the word suggests, it is NOT about seeing the sun at midnight. You can see that right through the Summer even in Oulu!!!!

Its the experience that the SUN DOESNOT SET. So over a period of 3 hours or so you can see the sun gradually setting and then without actually setting it will start rising again!

And about clicking photographs...even if I do click a snap, it might as well be a snap taken in the afternoon...there is no way to distinguish whether the snap was taken in the afternoon or in the midle of the night...it looks just the same.

It’s beautiful to see sunsets over the sea…anywhere in the world. So it would have been wonderful to have this experience in Nordkapp. But the normal weather conditions there are foggy so chances of experiencing Midnight sun there are rare. And that is what happened when we reached. It was raining and very, very foggy.

My trip mates were very disappointed. I wasn’t…because the previous day we had got lost and while driving through Sweden around 1:30 AM, I had told my trip mates…do you realize that the sun didn't set and has started rising again. And this is, I think, the few times in my life that I haven't regretted that I am just not able to sleep unless conditions are favorable (read..dark night, nice cozy bed, soft pillow). While some of them slept peacefully, I as wide awake staring out of the window when I realized that I had just experienced the MIDNIGHT SUN!!!

Fakir Manpreet!

 

The fakir on a bed of nails!

This snap was taken at a recent visit to the science centre Tieto Maa in Oulu. How easily I lay on the bed of nails and equally easily some people in India make a fool of the vulnerable villagers by saying they are performing feats of magic!!!

Anyways, to tell more about the science centre…it was really very nice. Science museums and centres can sometimes be very very boring as they have too much technical stuff. Even adults have difficulty comprehending all the details, forget the poor kids. Its quite a feat if you are able to spend a couple of hours there. But at Tieto Maa, it was an altogether different experience. Everything was explained by the way of a small game or task. e.g the Fakir bed – instead of just talking about mass, pressure etc, they had a bed of nails on which you could lie and test it for yourself.

Similarly for other laws that we have learnt in physics.

The one explaining centre of gravity was quite interesting. Several squares appear on a screen projected on a wall. A ball starts falling from the top and you have to move your body i.e change your centre of gravity to hit the boxes with the ball. As per the game I am not stable, with which I and some of my close friends would agree. I actually keep stumbling and falling!!!

There were several quizzes for different areas …again organized as a proper buzzer round for a quiz wherein upto 4 people can sit around and each one is given the same question to answer. I was looking at one of these and immediately 2 small boys came and sat on the other seats! And we had a quiz.

So many simulators…each one more fun than the other.  There was a 3D ski jump simulator, flight simulators, a time machine simulator. Another exhibit, not really a simulator, but still quite interesting. You stand on a high platform and jump onto a mattress. They then simulate and show you your jump in slow motion.

There was one whole floor called Sporttimus where you could try various sports. There was even a pit stop for car racing where you can actually try and change 2 tyres for a car. The turning wall was also quite popular.

Couple of things that I noticed -

• Everywhere there were small kids accompanied by parents – both categories having a blast.  One mom was busy playing a game herself, while her kids were playing some other game! 
  
• Teenagers (early as well as late teens!)…unaccompanied by adults.  It was like a group of friends who have come for an outing. This is very unlike western culture where teenagers just hang out! 
  
• I had gone alone and wanted to try the Dance Machine. It should be 2 people competing but I went on it alone. A girl in her late teens came up and asked me if she could join me. I thought that it was very considerate of her. She could have done it with her friends but realised that I was alone and just came up to me!
  
• And finally is possible to spend several hours in a science museum and not get bored. I spent close to 5 hrs and could have spent more time but it was closing time!

Calvin and Stars

A lovely Calvin snippet, so apt for my last post.

Astronomy Course/Workshop– May and June 2009

Ruchi and Poorvi often discussed joining an Astronomy course...I wasn’t really interested so never got excited and didn’t really encourage them. But then on a busy day at work I got a call from Ruchi. She had just spoken to Mr Rao from ABAA and there was this 6 weekend beginners program which was fast getting sold out. I was just telling her that I may not be able to attend all the classes but she was like...neither will I, but its only Rs 200/-

I agreed and don’t regret it one bit. I so looked forward to the classes and when I visited Delhi in the middle I planned to come back on Sunday in time for my class!

It was a bit theoretical but Mr Rao, the course coordinator’s passion for Astronomy used to flow in the lectures. Apart from that he is so knowledgeable and would often speak about Philosophy and quote from the Upanishads and Vedas making the lectures all the more interesting.

When in the first lecture he said that Astronomy tends to make you more philosophical, I couldn’t understand how...but a couple of lectures later I started thinking that I should read something on the Upanishads and Vedas.

In between this course The Bangalore Astronomical Society conducted a 2 full day workshop on Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites with Vishnu Reddy. Obviously we decided to attend that too!

It was very good and more focused on finding new Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites. However, that is not where my interest is really, coz I don’t really want to search for new stuff, but just enjoy the beauty of what is already there.

But still the lectures were very interesting. He actually had access to those really huge telescopes 34” ones sitting in some remote place in USA which he accessed from here remotely and showed us some of the objects…quite impressive.

On Sundays we could stay back to look at the sky but May/June are not very great months for sky watching in Bangalore. But October is supposed to be beautiful and ABAA members meet every Sunday at the planetarium and get out their telescopes. And that is where you are going to find me on Sunday evenings in October!!!