Where are the stars ?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So first time I am experiencing this unique thing when you live so close to North pole. Where are the stars these days!! The reason for this is that there is no more night in Finland. I have been noticing this since the last one week, till 11.30pm I can see the sun’s rays falling on the Cathedral dome, around 12 midnight it will be something like dusk and voila! around 1.30 to 2.00 am again the sun rays!

The window of my room is on east, so when the sun comes up I get to have rays in my rooms filtering the blind , around 6 am the sun rays bounces off the lake and enters my room in full quantum and there is no question of me getting any sleep after 6 am. When I come from work I can see the sun rays falling on the buildings just outside my window. My apartment is situated on the top of the hill from where I used to have fantastic view of whole Hameenlinna town at night, alas that has gone too. The evening lights are barely noticeable when there is no darkness.

This Friday I had gone to Helsinki and while coming back I took the bus at 2345 hours in it was getting dusk at that time, I reached Hameenlinna at 0115 hours and by the time I was getting in bed at 2 am it was already sunrise.

It is kind of funny, when I cook my dinner at 9pm I have sun rays falling on the hotplates and the pan. Finnish people have their dinner at 4pm and supper at around 8pm ( if I am not wrong) so it might be more funny for them, hard to make out whether it is lunch or dinner !

The downside to this is that if there is no night then in winters there will be no day, why didn’t I notice it then in the winters? I analysed a bit and found out that this happens in November and this time it was cloudy and raining for most of November so I didn’t notice that the phenomenon of ‘no-day’ is due to clouds or polar nights. Whatever, but I dread the month of November, the most depressing month in Finland.

While typing I am seeing the clock on my computer it is showing 11.09 pm and I have not yet switched on the light in my room, the light coming from window is still sufficient, though it being a cloudy day today.

I am thinking of pole star, where it would be? I am not sure if there is any planetarium in Finland, will find it out tomorrow from the colleagues. It would be interesting to spend one night err... day there.