What you're seeing here is the photographic time-lapse of the Arctic summer as photographed in Iceland this past June.

During this period, the sun never entirely sets, leaving the northern climes in a state of hazy golden weirdness in the day's wee hours. Explains the photographer at SCIENTIFANTASTIC:

Iceland during the Midnight Sun is in sort of a permanent state of sunset. The sun never full sets and travels horizontally across the horizon throughout the night, as can be seen in the opening shot and at the :51 second mark in the video. During the Arctic summer, sunset was at midnight and sunrise was at 3am. The Arctic summer sun provided 24 hours a day of light, with as much as 6 hours daily of "Golden light". Once the sun had set it wouldn't even get dark enough for the stars to come out, and they don't start to reappear until August.


And be sure to check out this time-lapse of the days leading up to the Midnight Sun in Norway.


[Via MeFi]