Our petition's aim is to end the UK population's general ignorance about summer twilight!

This is a lecture, not a petition update:

I am Mr Easter, the campaigner behind the 'Earliest Easter Campaign' on the platform which has surpassed 450 signatures. 

The aim of this petition is, quite simply, to end the UK public's general ignorance to the fact that astronomical twilight lasts all night throughout the night in the UK near the summer solstice (June 21st) and that WE ARE ALL TOO FAR NORTH or complete darkness in June. For astronomers in the UK, who categorise twilight into three distinct stages (civil, nautical and astronomical), if they want to do serious deep-sky observing around the summer solstice, they have NO CHOICE but to leave the UK and go on holiday abroad if they want truly dark skies around the summer solstice!

This may seem counterintuitive, seeing as on a globe, the UK doesn't "look" like its at an extremely high latitude, however I want to educate you all to end a common misconception about how dark our night skies truly get.

As mentioned above, twilight is categorised into three stages (civil, nautical and astronomical) in segments of 6 degrees.

• Civil Twilight is the brightest form of twilight, and under clear skies artificial light is not needed to carry out outdoor activities such as mowing the lawn and clouds often take on a pink hue during this phase. This phase strictly occurs when the sun is between 0 and 6 degrees below a flat horizon.

• Nautical Twilight is significantly darker and this is when bright stars start to appear, skies turn an azure blue and buildings take on silhouettes, it is called 'nautical' because it was under these light conditions that sailers/mariners could start navigating by using bright stars (that is, there is enough visible light near the horizon but the sky also simultaneously being dark enough for the brightest stars to appear). This phase occurs when the sun is between 6 and 12 degrees below a flat horizon.

• Astronomical Twilight, is the darkest stage of twilight, with the sky looking like 'night to most casual observers.  Because the sky appears so dark, the 'twilight' looks indistinguishable from complete 'nighttime darkness' however for professional astronomers, the remaining sunlight in the atmosphere washes out the views of the faintest stars in the sky, much like a full moon, hence astronomers must wait until this phase is over before they can truly observe the stars. This phase occurs when the sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below a perfectly flat unobscured horizon.

All of you probably know that the sun never sets at the North Pole for six months, however you don't need to be at the North Pole to have a single day where the sun never sets. If you go to the north of Norway, there are several weeks where the sun never sets and it doesn't get dark, that is because the north of Norway lies above an imaginary border called the Arctic Circle, which defines the southernmost latitude in the Northern Hemisphere where the sun, generally, never sets in the summer (or rises in the winter). This is why Norway is famously known as the Land of the 'Midnight Sun'.

You also probably know that the sun does not immediately become pitch black instantly as soon as the sun sets, that transition between daylight and darkness is called 'twilight'.

The Arctic Circle lies at a latitude of 66.5 degrees North of the Equator, therefore locations between 60 and 66 degrees north the Equator experience 'white nights' where it never gets darker than civil twilight near the summer solstice (66-60=6 degrees).

60-6 = 54, this means that locations between these two latitudes (54 to 60 degrees North) experience nights where it never gets darker than nautical twilight, this means that the sky only generally gets as dark as a dark blue then gets lighter again. All of Scotland lies within this zone, and if you visit Scotland in June, the lack of complete darkness at night is very noticeable (66-54=12 degrees, the limit of nautical twilight).

54-12 = 48, this means that anywhere north of 48.5N (18 degrees from the Arctic Circle), for real, experience nights where it technically never gets completely dark (in other words, there is technically no 'night' north of this mark). The southernmost tip of England is pretty much at exactly 50 degrees north, London is at 51.5 degrees north and the whole of Great Britain lies between 50 and 58 degrees North, therefore we are close enough to the Arctic Circle (within 18 degrees of it), that we never have complete darkness and the image on the front page will shock anyone in the UK (who does not already know about this phenomenon) who accidentally sees this petition page. My update will confirm to you all that THIS IS NOT A JOKE and I urge all of you to look at timeanddate.com for sunrise and sunset times for any location and the lowest latitude for all-night twilight is FURTHER SOUTH THAN PARIS!

Yes, nearly every latitude which is closer to the North Pole than the Equator experience twilight lasting all night at some point in the summer. This phenomenon occurs at mid-latitudes like 49 degrees North, not just at high latitudes which are generally defined as being 55 degrees North or higher.

I don't need to ever declare victory on this petition, as each new UK user who sees and signs this petition learns this fact. Most Brits live their entire lived without ever learning this fact, however change.org (a very powerful platform) will teach the UK public the truth and reaching 100 signatures means that there are 100 fewer Brits completely oblivious to this fact (even though at 1am on a June night in London, the sky still looks completely dark for those who are having a night out), and even those people who are out during those 'dark' June nights out partying are completely oblivious to the fact that the sky isn't technically pitch black even though it looks it!

Another common misconception is that the sun is never directly overhead north of the Tropic of Cancer, this is very noticeable in the UK where the sun on the summer solstice is high but not overhead, but is a common misconception among US residents as the southernmost tip of the continental US (i.e. Miami, Florida) the sun still 'looks' directly overhead for a casual observer.

Mr Easter (Ro____ Miles Ash_____)