Tok

Spending the day driving to Tok. Boring overcast day. Stop at Glennallen for gas. North of Glennallen I miss the turn off to Tok and have to backtrack 4 miles.  I have Apple Play running, but it is not talking to me for some unknown reason.

Stop for gas at Chevron on Tok. They have a free dump station and water. They have propane and a car wash. Being late in the afternoon on Sunday, the propane operator had left for the day. We do dump the tanks and take on water. We try another propane place, but they are closed for the day. We head back to Chevron to wash the RV.

Although we can stay overnight for free at the Chevron station, we head east about 8 miles to the boat launch on the Tanana River, Tetlin Bridge boat launch. I noticed the very large parking lot here coming east a month ago.  We have a very quiet night even though we are near the highway.  We are lower than the road surface, so tire noise goes over our heads. 

Supposed to be another chance for Northern Lights tonight, but we are still probably too far north for this time in August for it to be dark enough. I set the alarm for 2:00AM.

The sun only gets down to Nautical Twilight for a couple more weeks here.  Civil Twilight is when the sun is 0-6 degrees below the horizon. Nautical Twilight is when the sun is 6-12 degrees below the horizon. Astronomical Twilight (fully dark) is at 18 degrees below the horizon. Our maximum at this location and time is still Nautical Twilight and lowest angle should be around 2:00AM

This is how dark it was at 2:00AM to the north. A few bright stars could be seen east or west.  This still is much darker than it was a month ago further north at Fairbanks at 2:00AM.  At Fairbanks they play a baseball game on the summer solstice in the end of June at Mid-night without any artificial lights.