Svalbard -- December 2012
I spent the winter solstice in Longyearbyen, a community of about 700 people on the northern Norwegian island of Svalbard. The sun doesn't rise for a couple months during the winter, and around the solstice the daytime is no brighter than the night (below, Nybyen at noon).
I went to Svalbard to attempt to capture a 24-long-time star trail. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and the longest period of cloudlessness was only about 10 hours long.
Svalbard's great mammal inhabitant is the polar bear. The one below I met at the (fantastic) town museum.
My favourite part of Svalbard was the fantastic stories attached to the place, including explorers like Andrée and Nansen, and the man-against-the-world trappers who braved the frigid cold and desolate loneliness for a life on the edge. Longyearbyen is a surprisingly well-developed town -- I'd certainly go back.
