midnight sun

hello just wanting to know a little more information about the midnight sun were would be the best place would you be able to see the midnight sun in neighbouring countries too?

many thanks

The chance of seeing the midnight sun ONLY depends om the latitude. At the Polar Circle there is Midnigt sun for one night/year (if you can see the horizon toward the north) - at the pole it is 180 days!
Even as far south as Denmark has 17 hours between sunrise and sunset + >4 hours of twiligt at Midsummer.

So you simply look at the map and the latitude lines! And the climatic table to figure out where the risk of clouds is low, if you want to see the Sun itself and not only the daylight.

Note the difference between local (daylight saving time) time ad astronomical time - the true Midnight (if it really is important for you to se the Sun closest possible to the horizon and at true north) happen at 1-2 am.

When you say "see the midnight sun", do you just want to experience light nights, or do you want physically to see the disk sun above the horizon at (true) midnight? Actually, the latter is not a very spectacular sight, it is just seeing the sun in the sky, only you know that it was midnight.

For the former, anywhere from about 58 or 59 degs northwards will do if you are sufficiently close to the solstice - I've been able to read my watch inside my tent at 2am without any artificial lighting assistance 3 weeks away from the solstice at 59 degs N. Somewhere fairly close to the Arctic circle, but still south of it, like Reykjavik or Trondheim, white nights persist for about 3 months.

Physically seeing the sun above the horizon, you have to be N of the Arctic circle (you can in fact see it very slightly to the S of the Arctic circle at the solstice itself due to optical effects if the sky is clear enough). But you have to get a few hundred km N say to about 70N for there to be an extensive window of time for it to be possible. The actually to achieve it you need a sufficiently clear horizon to the N - Svolvaer is not a good place, for example, since it sits under a steep mountain to the N of it - and then for there to be no clouds. And true midnight can be some time like 1.30 am because of clock setting issues. I was in N Norway with a 10 day window to see it, and I never saw it because of clouds and mountains, even when the day was nice and clear and I had a view to the N, there could be light cloud on the N horizon and the sun disappeared...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Arctic_circle.svg

Since you post this tagged with Norway: Roughly any town north of Saltfjellet mountains in Nordland county. The further north, the more days of sun.

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