What is the sunset description. How to determine the sunrise and sunset for your locality. Magic dates of the equinox and solstice

As the sunset and sunrise occur every day in different time and only due to the rotation around the Sun. In another case, the celestial body would be at a constant zenith, which would deprive the Earth not only of sunrises and sunsets, but life itself on the planet would be impossible.

Sunset and Sunrise

Sunset and sunrise are the periods of time when the upper edge of the Sun is at the same level with the horizon line. The trajectory of the passage of the heavenly body differs depending on from what point on the planet and at what time of the year to observe it. At the equator, the Sun rises perpendicular to the horizon and sets also perpendicular, regardless of the season.

Where does the sun rise?

Most people know that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. However, this is nothing more than a generalization. In fact, this happens only 2 days a year - during the spring and on other days the Sun rises from north to south. Every day, the points at which the sunset and sunrise occur move slightly. During the day, it rises to the maximum to the northeast. Every day after that, the luminary rises a little to the south. In a day autumn equinox The sun rises strictly in the east and sets in the west.

Since ancient times, people have tracked the growth and parameters of sunrise and sunset points in great detail. Thus, in ancient times, it was possible to navigate in time with the help of jagged peaks of mountains along the horizon line or with the help of standing stones, built in a special way.

End and beginning daylight hours

Sunset and Sunrise are the beginning and end points. It is important to note that both of these phenomena are only brief moments. Twilight is the time range during which day becomes night or vice versa. Morning twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise, and evening twilight is the time between sunset and sunset. The duration of twilight actually depends on the location on the planet, as well as on the specific date.

For example, in the Arctic and Antarctic latitudes, it is never completely dark on a winter night. Sunrise is the moment when the upper edge of the Sun becomes visible above the eastern horizon in the morning. Sunset is the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun ceases to be visible and disappears below the western horizon in the evening.

day length

And with it the time of sunset and sunrise is not constant value. In the northern hemisphere, the days are longer in summer and the days become shorter in winter. The length of daytime also decreases or increases depending on geographical latitude the higher it is, the shorter the days. As a rule, this winter time. An interesting fact is that due to the decrease in speed, the rotations become slightly longer over time. Roughly 100 years ago, the average day was 1.7 milliseconds shorter than today.

Sunrise - sunset. What is the external difference?

Sunrises and sunsets look different. Can these differences be visually ascertained by watching the sun rise above the horizon without knowing whether the day is ending or just beginning? So, is there an objective way to tell these two similar phenomena apart? All twilight periods of time are symmetrical. This means that there is not much optical difference between them.

However, two human factors deny their identity. Closer to sunset eyes adapted to daylight are starting to get tired. Gradually the light fades, the sky darkens, and the person cannot adapt as quickly as all this is happening. Some shades cannot be fully perceived. At dawn, the situation is quite different.

The darkness of the night adapts the vision to very sharp and clear vision, and every subtle change in color in the sky is immediately evident. Thus, more colors are perceived at dawn than at dusk. It is this time, due to limited visibility, that is the most dangerous for drivers, so there is a need for artificial lighting. With the onset of dusk, it is imperative to turn on the headlights.

What could be more beautiful and emotional than a magnificent moment when the sun disappearing behind the horizon illuminates everything around with bright light? I suggest you admire the selection of very beautiful scenery with sunsets

We continue the series with beautiful photos sunsets. Earlier we admired photographs of mountain sunsets, now we will tell you more about this phenomenon in general.


Such a beautiful phenomenon is explained by atmospheric diffraction - the refraction of light. This is the process when the rays of light from the sun change their direction, passing through the Earth's atmosphere and colliding with different layers of air. This time of day also increases the brightness and intensity of the rainbow, which appears much brighter than normal.


Light rays are scattered through the layers of the atmosphere into many waves of different lengths and sizes. At this time purple and blue colors much more diffuse than yellow and red. That is why red and orange hues predominate during sunset.

During the day, the Earth's atmosphere heats up, winds raise clouds of dust - all this affects the passage of sunlight through the atmosphere. The amazing moment is that each sunset is unique in its own way, like a human fingerprint. A sunset cannot be repeated in the same way, just as the same atmospheric conditions cannot be formed each time at the time of sunset.


Surely many of you have wondered what sunsets look like on other planets and whether they are there at all. Something similar can be seen on Mars, but the absence of a real atmosphere inevitably means a lack of light. Thus, on no other planet can you watch the same beautiful sunsets as on Earth. We should be grateful to nature for this splendor and enjoy this beauty every evening.

Sometimes, for example, going to hiking It is extremely important for us to know the time of sunrise and sunset. I would like to find myself in civilized places before dark. But how do we calculate when to leave and when to return? Easily! Look at the tear-off calendar. There, for each day, it is indicated to the minute when the sun rises and when it sets. Add to this another half an hour or an hour (depending on the distance from the equator and clear/cloudy weather) for dawn and evening twilight, and you get the length of daylight hours.

However, in this advice - to be guided by a tear-off calendar - there is one but. So we will know the time of sunrise and sunset, for example, in Moscow, but by no means in our area. And here we must move from the lyrics to the dry language of numbers. Ready? Then read our article and calculate the daylight hours for your area.

What geographic parameters are involved in the calculation

In relation to our star, the planet Earth rotates at a speed of fifteen degrees per hour. The Sun occupies its highest position in the sky at noon. And in this paragraph it is necessary to take into account the correction for the possible summer time, when the chronometers of many countries willfully (that is, without coordination with the Cosmos) move forward an hour. Then the sun is at its zenith at one o'clock in the afternoon. But that's not all.

There is also the concept of "true noon". The earth is divided into time zones. Each of them is quite a vast territory. Therefore, in settlements located to the east or west of the hour meridian (where noon occurs exactly at 12:00), it is observed earlier or later. Thus, it is necessary to establish the longitude at which the settlement of interest to us is located. To determine the sunrise / sunset, we need to know the latitude of the area relative to the equator.

Magic dates of the equinox and solstice

Twice a year, the Earth rotates to our luminary at an angle of 90 degrees. This year it will happen on March 19 and September 22. These days, anywhere in the world, sunrise and sunset will occur at six o'clock (morning and evening, respectively). That's when it's convenient to calculate local time! In the north, dusk and dawn play in the sky for a long time. IN tropical latitudes The sun dives below the horizon quickly. But this is not the main thing. After all, daylight hours can optically become smaller due to simple cloudiness.

Two more dates should be remembered: the winter and summer solstices. For the northern hemisphere, December 21 is the day with the longest night. And on June 21, the sun is in no hurry to leave the sky. On this date, night does not fall on the Arctic Circle, and on December 21 it does not change into daylight. But when the dawn comes in the summer and winter solstice in the area of ​​interest?

Sunrise and sunset in Moscow

Consider the algorithm for calculating the length of daylight hours and, consequently, the time of dawn and sunset using the example of the capital. On the nineteenth of March in Moscow, however, as elsewhere on the globe, it will be light twelve o'clock. But since the metropolis is located just east of the UTC +3 hour meridian, the sun will rise there not at 6:00, but at 6:38. And it will also come in at 18:38. Daylight continues to increase, reaching its climax at seventeen hours and twenty-five minutes on June 20th. We can easily determine the sunrise and sunset for Moscow on this date. Noon there comes at 12:38. Then it turns out that the sun rises at 3:48 and sets at 21:13. Do you already know the deviation from the hour meridian in your locality? When is true noon there?

Sunrise and sunset at the selected location

The dates of the equinox and solstice can be the starting data for calculations. On March 20, both at the Arctic Circle and at the equator, the sun will rise at 6:00, and sunset will be at 18:00. Here we take into account the deviation from the hour meridian. After the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight begins to grow, reaching its apogee on June 21. On the Arctic Circle, sunrise and sunset occur at 0:00. Therefore, a day of light lasts twenty-four hours. And at the equator, everything remains the same: dawn at 6:00, sunset at 18:00. The higher the latitude, the longer the daylight hours grow, the earlier the sun rises and the later it sets.

Knowing the geographical coordinates of the point, it is easy to calculate the time of sunrise and sunset. We derive the formula. Find out how many days between spring equinox and the summer solstice. Ninety-two days. We also know how many hours a day of light lasts on the summer solstice. Let's say eighteen hours. 18 - 12 = 6. Divide six hours by 92. The result is how many minutes each light day grows. We divide it into two. This is how much earlier the sun rises compared to yesterday.

If our planet did not revolve around the Sun and was absolutely flat, the celestial body would always be at its zenith and not move anywhere - there would be no sunset, no dawn, no life. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to watch the sunrise and sunset - and therefore life on planet Earth continues.

The Earth relentlessly moves around the Sun and its axis, and once a day (with the exception of the polar latitudes) the solar disk appears and disappears behind the horizon, marking the beginning and end of daylight. Therefore, in astronomy, sunrise and sunset are the times when the upper point of the solar disk appears or disappears above the horizon.

In turn, the period before sunrise or sunset is called twilight: the solar disk is not far from the horizon, and therefore part of the rays, falling into the upper layers of the atmosphere, are reflected from it to the earth's surface. The duration of twilight before sunrise or sunset directly depends on latitude: at the poles they last from 2 to 3 weeks, in the subpolar zones - several hours, in temperate latitudes- about two hours. But at the equator, the time before sunrise is from 20 to 25 minutes.

During sunrise and sunset, a certain optical effect is created when the sun's rays illuminate the earth's surface and the sky, painting them in multi-colored tones. Before sunrise, at dawn, the colors are more subtle, while sunset illuminates the planet with rays of rich reds, burgundy, yellows, oranges and, very rarely, greens.

The sunset has such an intensity of colors due to the fact that during the day the earth's surface warms up, the humidity decreases, the speed of air flows increases, and dust rises into the air. The difference in colors between sunrise and sunset largely depends on the area where the person is and is watching these amazing phenomena nature.

External characteristics of a wondrous natural phenomenon

Since one can speak of sunrise and sunset as two identical phenomena, differing from each other in saturation of colors, the description of the sunset over the horizon can also be applied to the time before sunrise and its appearance, only in reverse order.

The lower the solar disk descends to the western horizon line, the less bright it is and becomes first yellow, then orange, and finally red. The sky also changes its color: at first it is golden, then orange, and at the edge - red.

When the sun's disk comes close to the horizon, it acquires a dark red color, and on either side of it you can see a bright band of dawn, the colors of which go from bluish-green to bright orange from top to bottom. At the same time, a colorless radiance forms over the dawn.

Simultaneously with this phenomenon, an ash-bluish stripe (the shadow of the Earth) appears on the opposite side of the sky, above which you can see an orange-pink segment, the Belt of Venus - it appears above the horizon at a height of 10 to 20 ° and with a clear sky visible anywhere on our planet.

The more the Sun goes below the horizon, the more purple the sky becomes, and when it falls four or five degrees below the horizon, the shade acquires the most saturated tones. After that, the sky gradually becomes fiery red (the rays of the Buddha), and from the place where the sun disk has set, stripes of light rays stretch upwards, gradually fading away, after the disappearance of which near the horizon you can see a fading strip of dark red color.

After the shadow of the Earth gradually fills the sky, the Belt of Venus dissipates, the silhouette of the Moon appears in the sky, then the stars - and night falls (twilight ends when the solar disk goes six degrees below the horizon). The more time passes from the departure of the Sun below the horizon line, the colder it becomes, and by morning, before sunrise, the lowest temperature is observed. But everything changes when, after a few hours, the red Sun rises: the solar disk appears in the east, the night leaves, and the earth's surface begins to warm up.

Why is the sun red

Since ancient times, the sunset and sunrise of the red Sun has attracted the attention of mankind, and therefore people have tried to explain with all the methods available to them why the solar disk, being yellow, acquires a reddish tint on the horizon line. The first attempt to explain this phenomenon was legends, followed by folk omens: people were sure that the sunset and sunrise of the red Sun did not bode well.

For example, they were convinced that if the sky remained red for a long time after sunrise, the day would be unbearably hot. Another sign said that if before sunrise the sky in the east is red, and after sunrise this color disappears immediately - it will rain. The rising of the red Sun also promised bad weather if, after its appearance in the sky, it immediately acquired a light yellow color.

The rising of the red Sun in such an interpretation could hardly satisfy the inquisitive human mind for a long time. Therefore, after the discovery of various physical laws, including Rayleigh's law, it was found that the red color of the Sun is explained by the fact that it, as having the longest wave, in dense atmosphere Earth scatters much less than other colors.

Therefore, when the sun is near the horizon, its rays glide along earth's surface, where the air has not only the highest density, but also extremely high humidity at this time, which delays and absorbs the rays. As a result of this, only rays of red and orange colors can break through the dense and humid atmosphere in the first minutes of sunrise.

Sunrise and sunset

Although many believe that in the northern hemisphere the earliest sunset occurs on December 21, and the latest on June 21, in reality this opinion is erroneous: the days of winter and summer solstices are only dates that indicate the presence of the shortest or long day in a year.

I wonder what north latitude, the closer to the solstice comes the latest sunset of the year. For example, in 2014, at a latitude located at sixty-two degrees, it occurred on June 23. But at the thirty-fifth latitude, the latest sunset of the year occurred six days later (the earliest sunrise was recorded two weeks earlier, a few days before June 21).

Without a special calendar at hand, it is quite difficult to determine exact time sunrise and sunset. This is due to the fact that while rotating uniformly around its axis and the Sun, the Earth moves unevenly in an elliptical orbit. It is worth noting that if our planet moved around the Sun, this effect would not be observed.

Humanity has noticed such deviations in time for a long time, and therefore, throughout its history, people have tried to clarify this issue for themselves: the ancient structures they erected, which are extremely reminiscent of observatories, have survived to this day (for example, Stonehenge in England or the Mayan pyramids in America).

For the past few centuries, astronomers have been creating calendars of the Moon and Sun to calculate the time of sunrise and sunset by observing the sky. Today, thanks to virtual network, calculation of sunrise and sunset can be done by any Internet user using special online services - for this, it is enough to indicate the city or geographical coordinates (if the desired area is not on the map), as well as the required date.

Interestingly, with the help of such calendars, you can often find out not only the time of sunset or dawn, but also the period between the onset of twilight and before sunrise, the length of the day / night, the time when the Sun will be at its zenith, and much more.

The natural phenomenon, which we call sunset, is a time period when the celestial body moves towards the horizon, gradually disappearing behind it. Sunrise is the opposite process - the emergence of the solar disk from behind the horizon. Both of these phenomena are very similar to each other, the only difference is that sunsets are mostly saturated with brighter colors and unexpected play of colors, therefore they are more interesting for artists and photographers.

Consider the features of the sunset process. The lower it falls to the horizon line, the more it loses its brightness, and acquires a reddish color. A change in the color of a star entails a change in the entire celestial color. The sky near the Sun turns red, yellow and orange color, and on the part of the sky, which is anti-solar, a pale band of light color becomes noticeable.

When the solar disk reaches the horizon, it turns dark red, and we can observe the bright bands of dawn that spread in all directions from it. Zarya has a complex color range, ranging from orange below to greenish blue above. Above the dawn you can see a round radiance that has no color.

At the same time, a dark shadow of the Earth rises above the opposite part of the horizon line, it is separated from the light part of the sky by a strip of pink-orange color, which is called the Belt of Venus.

This phenomenon can be observed anywhere on our planet, required condition- clear sky. The color of the Belt is due to the fact that the rays of the setting sun are scattered, which have an orange-red color.

The sun, which is sinking lower and lower below the horizon, colors the sky in an intense purple color. This phenomenon did not go unnoticed by scientists and was called Purple Light.

Given a natural phenomenon most noticeable when the location of the sun is 5 degrees below the horizon. Purple light makes the sky grand and infinitely beautiful. Everything turns scarlet, purple, purple and from this acquires mystery and mystical outlines.

The splendor of purple gives way to the Rays of the Buddha. This natural phenomenon is characterized by fiery red tones, while from the place sunset rays diverge upward, which are distinct light stripes.

Saying goodbye to the Earth with the Rays of Buddha, the Sun goes to a well-deserved rest. Reminds of him only a dark red stripe lying on the horizon, which is gradually fading away. Day follows night.

This example is just one of many options, along which the sunset can develop. This phenomenon is striking in its diversity and inconstancy, more and more new forms.

On our site you can use the calculator and calculate the time of sunrise and sunset anywhere in the world.