From Ketchikan to Barrow and everywhere in between, the abundance of daylight in summer affects Alaskans' lives in countless ways -- mostly positive. From construction to recreation to travel, we use the blessing of daylight to conduct activities unfathomable to our Lower 48 counterparts. Some say it is our reward for a long, dark winter. Perhaps. Why do we receive so much daylight? The Earth makes a 365-day orbital journey around the sun. While orbiting the sun, we are tilted about 23 degrees from a straight up and down position. The tilt keeps our planet pointed in the same direction all year long as we move around the sun. During the summer months in the northern hemisphere, the Earth faces toward the sun. In the winter, the opposite is true. The day we're most directly pointed toward the sun is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Summer solstice is always June 20 or June 21. How much daylight is there on the summer solstice? That depends on where in Alaska you live. The farther north you go, the longer the day. Just north of Fairbanks, the day is 24 hours long. In Fairbanks, there are nearly 22 hours of daylight, about 19.5 hours in Anchorage and 18.2 hours in Juneau. Keep in mind that these numbers represent the amount of time the sun is above the horizon. If we include civil twilight, an amount of light that is enough to function without assistance if no clouds are present, the 24-hour line drops to the latitude of Kenai. In Anchorage, all days between June 8 and July 5 have 24 hours of daylight or civil twilight. Fairbanks has more than 70 days with 24 hours of daylight or civil twilight.