Celebrating summer solstice in the Arctic Circle

Sorry for the late posting....

It was a great feeling to have witnessed the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere at Inuvik on June 21. It also happened to be the National Aboriginal Day in Canada. A mid night run was organised in Inuvik to mark the occasion. During the day, a mid-day rally of aboriginals marked the occasion. I shot the proverbial midnight sun on the night of June 20, hours after landing at Inuvik after a rather bumpy flight in the chartered twin otter from Cape Parry.

June 21 marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and simultaneously heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere.The earth spins around its axis, an imaginary line going right through the planet between the north and south poles. The axis is tilted somewhat off the plane of the earth's revolution around the sun. The tilt of the axis is 23.5 degrees; thanks to this tilt, we enjoy the four seasons. For several months of the year, one half of the earth receives more direct rays of the sun than the other half.

When the axis tilts towards the sun, as it does between June and September, it is summer in the northern hemisphere but winter in the southern hemisphere. Alternatively, when the axis points away from the sun from December to March, the southern hemisphere enjoys the direct rays of the sun during their summer months.
June 21 is called the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and simultaneously the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. [from:http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/summersolstice.htm]