Night falls fast at the equator & slow at the poles.

It’s a strange feeling when it takes only 24 minutes for the sun to set at the equator in southern Africa. It’s like someone switched off the sun. But it’s not so fast at the North pole. Pictured above, sunrise begins in early March, and the sun doesn’t set until early October! Then it stays dark for almost six months – until the next March. The Earth’s tilt on its axis causes this curious phenomenon. For the rest of us, it can take somewhere between 70 and 140 minutes to get dark after sunset.