Watching the sun rise and set…in one sitting

Last night was the final sunset here at McMurdo…from here on out, it’ll only get brighter! Since it was the last sunset, a group of friends and I decided to climb Ob Hill (a smallish mountain in McMurdo’s backyard) to witness the moment. The sun was scheduled to set at 11:30 pm, so we set out on the Ob Hill trail around 10:30 pm. The hike takes about an hour, so we watched the sun sink below the mountain range in the distance just as we reached the top. Less than five minutes later, the sun began to rise again! Because of the way the earth is positioned right now, I literally saw the sun rise and set in less than 15 minutes!

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