I read an article saying that the hours of sunlight in French Polynesia in October are 7 hours ? Is this true ?

That article is way off. Any location that is close to the equator (such as French Polynesia) is going to have a 12-hour day during dates near the autumnal (or vernal) equinoxes. Even during the most extreme cases, you are not going to see the time between sunrise and sunset drop to less than 11 hours.

I would also point out that these times are between sunrise and sunset, and of course, sunlight occurs well before sunrise and well after sunset, so in fact you are never going to have a day in French Poly that has less than 13 hours of sunlight.

If you want to know exact hours of sunrise and sunset in Papeete, go here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...omy.html?n=278

Hi Jersey Sue,

Another good site for daylight hours anywhere in the world at any time is www.sunrisesunset.com It also shows moon phases and twilight.

A valuable tool when planning a holiday. You can print out the monthly calendar with the information printed on each day's square. It also includes daylight saving.

Thanks Alf and Brushtail !

I tried the sunrisesunset.com site, but didn't find Tahiti or Polynesia on the list of international cities. (However, I did find High Wycombe, north and south poles, and the Falkland Islands!!) Who makes those the selected "cities"??

Did I miss something, brushtail? (timeanddate.com was much more helpful.)

For sunrisesunset.com, there is no preset data for French Polynesia - you will have to select, "custom sunrise and sunset calendar". You have to certify that you understand the meaning of latitude, longitude, and Greenwhich Mean Time *why? I don't know!); then you just input Papeete's latitude (17.5 S), longitude (149.5 W), and time zone (-10), and you will get a calendar for whatever month you specify.

Thanks for those coordinates, ALF. I'll have another go at it.
(But I still don't understand why they list High Wycombe. (LOL) I used to live near there -- it's just outside London, commuting distance. The times/coordinates would be almost exactly the same, as I remember my old geography lessons... Maybe the site was intended for geographers, or ocean-going sailors.