1. We may note that the Discovery, in settling down into winter quarters in February, 1902, was frozen in, "and endured a long dark winter, with a night of 122 days, when the temperature fell to 62 degrees below zero, and it was unsafe to venture from the ship, for even a mile, because of the blinding blizzard that raged almost continuously."
This quotation is an excerpt from the statement of Lieut. Shackleton, of the Discovery.
"Does the phrase, 'a night of 122 days' mean that the sun was not seen for that long period?" was a question put to me ; and I replied, "Certainly."
And as such is undoubtedly the case, I ask, how would it be possible to experience "a night of 122 days", if the earth be a globe careering round the sun, as they say it does?
Longyearbyen, Norway — Sunrise, sunset and daylength : http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/longyearbyen?month=10&year=2015
Discovery wasn't settled down at higher southern latitude than Longyearbyen is situated at north (78,13 degrees N), and Longyearbyen dark winter lasts for 112 days which is a whole 10 days less than reported (by Lieut. Shackleton) 122 days of a complete darkness!
Methinks you're reading too much into some of these descriptions. Where does Mr. Shackleton say "complete darkness" for 122 days? According to the text above, he agreed that "the sun was not seen", but nothing more.
Referring to your
http://www.timeanddate.com calendar for McMurdo Station, Antarctica (Winter Quarters Bay is part of the "McMurdo metro area"), the last sunset this year was Apr. 24 and the next sunrise will be Aug 19. That's 117 days between sunset and sunrise.[nb]Is there any objection to using 2015 as a proxy for 1902? If so, you can look up those dates and times yourself and do your own calculation.[/nb]
So why was the report 122 days without the sun, a whole 5 days more? This is some conjecture, but, during the very short times with sunlight just before and after the Austral Winter at McMurdo, the Sun briefly skims the northern horizon for only a short time. McMurdo (and Winter Quarters Bay) are on a spit of land extending from the south side of Ross Island, so the bulk of the island - including Mt. Erebus, a volcano topping out at 12,448' (3,794 m) - is north of the observation site. Perhaps the Sun, barely, and briefly, peeking above the ideal horizon, was still well below the higher elevations to the north? The really crappy weather (i.e. "
the blinding blizzard that raged almost continuously") cited above is another entirely reasonable possibility for not seeing the Sun for the last and/or first few days it might have otherwise been visible as well. As I said, this is conjecture, but, IMO, entirely reasonable, for not seeing the Sun for a few days when you otherwise
might have been able to. The lack of more detailed information leaves us guessing.
Why would 117 days without sun be longer than 112 days at a slightly higher northern latitude in Norway? Cast your mind back to the Equation of Time discussions some months ago. You were asserting (correctly) that the Earth is closest to the Sun near the southern solstice, and (incorrectly) that the southern hemisphere should be broiling. Remember that? Well, the reply was (also correctly) that, because the Earth is closest to the Sun then, it's also moving fastest in its orbit at the same time, so (again correctly) the southern summer is slightly shorter than the northern one. Remember?
If you look up the dates and times for the equinoxes this year, Mar. 20 22:45 and Sep 23, 08:20, that's 186.40 days the Sun is north of the Equator. Since the length of year is 365.25 days, that leaves 178.85 days for the Sun to be south of the Equator, a difference of 7.55 days. The Sun is "up" more in the northern hemisphere, than it is in the Southern hemisphere, so the number of sunless days are greater in the southern hemisphere at similar latitudes.
This is why I like hanging around this place; I learn stuff!
2. Aliveandkicking, have you ever witnessed something similar to this:
http://i.imgur.com/9WBuZRM.jpg
This isn't addressed to me, but I've never seen the green flash although I've looked for it when I've had the opportunity. I'd still like to. The very long, slow sunrises and sunsets at high latitude are ideal for this if there's a good unobstructed horizon.