The last sunset

Recently encountered the paper The last sunset on mainland Europe by Jorge Mira. No, despite the ominous title and my other interests it is not an estimate of when the ultimate sunset would happen (presumably either when Europe is subducted or when it gets vaporized together with Earth a few billion years hence by the ultimate sunrise). It is more along the lines of XKCD What-If’s “When will the sun finally set on the British Empire?

Mira points out that the terminator is a great circle that changes direction throughout the year, so at different times different parts of Europe will be last. He found that these parts are Cabo de São Vicente (Portugal, Oct 19-Feb 21), Cabo da Roca (Portugal, Feb 21-Mar 24, Sep 20-Oct 19), Cabo Tourinan (Spain, Mar 24-Apr 23, Aug 18-Sep 19), a site near Aglapsvik (Norway, Apri 24-May 1, Aug 11-Aug 18), and a place in Masoy south of Havoysund(Norway, May 1-May 10, Aug 2-Aug 10).  From May 11-Aug 1 the point skips along the coast to the Arctic circle and back. Which technically might mean it moves instantly through Sweden, Finland and Russia too at the summer solstice.

I happened to be taking a sunset photo at Cabo de São Vicente when I was there Dec 27: this was the last mainland sunset for that day.
Last sunset