Monday, 5 October 2015

The Classification of Dawn

Do you remmeber the seminal movie "From Dusk Till Dawn"? As your mind recalls the story from crime to vampire, I have to ask the crucial question: Which dawn?
In tropical lands this question is useless of course, because dawn is very short. The sun rises quickly and the light travels with it.
Far away from the equator things are different.
There is the astronomical dawn with the sun 18° below the horizon. It is not so dark anymore, whatever that means. Seemingly some lux crawl across the horizon.
Then there is nautical dawn, with the sun 12° below the horizon. You can already identify the horizon.
Finally civil dawn comes along, the sun 6° below the horizon. The light is bright enough for outdoor activities.
Ten minutes ago I didn't know that. Now I do and it fascinates me. Of course the same classification must work for dusk. I am looking forward to the movie "From Nautical Dusk To Civil Dawn" or maybe "From Civil Dusk To Astronomical Dawn" or...

However, dealing with time, I am glad that there is more to a sunrise, than the grenadine syrup.

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