Hi there, planning our second trip to Shetland, this time in June so that we are there for the longest day.

Checked websites which indicate approximate sunset and sunrise of around 2245 and 0315 but I'm curious to know of anyone's experience of the Simmer Dim and just how light it stays overnight.

We'll be self catering mostly but also keen to hear of any recommendations for any interesting restaurants or cafe's that we might stop in on our travels.

Many thanks.

Fi

can't speak for shetland but I had the experience at the southern tip of Argentina, and I didn't handle it well. There, the light stays noticeable -- dim is the word. Sort of like a constant pre-dawn light.

I didn't have an eyemask, which no doubt would help, and I'd want blackout curtains if I did it again. I just never quite adjusted and felt kind of blah most of the time.

I was in Orkney this past summer for solstice. While we had evidently missed 6 weeks of good weather, when we were there it was about 8 degrees C, windy and dim. Overcast most of the time (a few times the sun came out), but still beautiful. There was only three hours when the sun went down at night, it was like dark twilight during that time - it never got completely dark. The B&B we stayed at had dark curtains, but there was a skylight over the bed. They had covered it in foil, but it was peeling off

The almanac figures shown for locations on the wunderground site at www.wunderground.com are quite interesting.

These give not only sunrise/set times but also civil, nautical and astronomical twilight.

Civil twilight is perhaps the one most relevant to tourists as that site's definition of it is:

"the time period when the sun is no more than 6 degrees below the horizon at either sunrise or sunset. The horizon should be clearly defined and the brightest stars should be visible under good atmospheric conditions (i.e. no moonlight, or other lights). One still should be able to carry on ordinary outdoor activities."

It's what we might call 'useful daylight'.

For Lerwick at midsummer civil twilight ends at about 0015 BST and starts just before 0200 BST.

Our only experience of Shetland at that time of year was one night just before the solstice on our way home from Iceland. We had hoped for a nice night but it was murky and overcast. The view from the bar window at just after midnight was perhaps best described as being like moonlight on a foggy day.

Southern Argentina is not very far south as Ushuaia is at 55°S compared with UK where 55°N only gets you as far as Tyneside and Lerwick is at 60°.

I went looking for photos for you and found this.
http://gb.123rf.com/photo_454293.html

How're you getting there?

Hi, sorry for not getting back to this thread sooner.

Thanks all for the information. For anyone else interested, we used www.earthtools.org to get the approximate sunrise/sunset times.

Sheila, we are flying up from Edinburgh. We came by ferry last year and although it was an OK journey, we grudge the extra day at each end of the holiday just to be trapped on the ferry.

Can't wait now, got everything confirmed yesterday, flights, car hire and accommodation.

Cheers all.

Fi