Sunset, Sunrise, Dusk and Dawn with Twilight in Between

A friend who lives in Ripon asked if I would like to join her attending the Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair in Harrogate, usually happening on the last weekend in November. It’s held at the Yorkshire Event Centre a little way out of town in the area where the Great Yorkshire Show is held. There were one hundred and eighty stalls full of things to tempt you for Christmas and all year round. Three of us went and we had a really fun day.

Getting there initially we were going to catch the number 36 bus from Ripon, a brilliant service running every half hour to Harrogate and beyond to Leeds but it didn’t work out with the event being so far out of town. We decided that I would drive from West Burton to Ripon picking Sue up in Leyburn and Betty would take us the rest of the way which was great. At my age though I find it nye on impossible to drive in the dark, in the dark is fine but with oncoming headlights its just a no go so I needed to know exactly when it would be dark. Why I couldn’t have just waited one evening to see for myself, but no, I had to ask Google’s opinion too.

What information came before me though, found it quite fascinating! I had no idea about when it was twilight, dusk, dawn so I’ll try and explain a little here for you. It is quite precise and although we say it’s dusk or dawn or whatever there is more to it than that.

There are three types of twilight, civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight and these three happen just before sunrise and after sunset. Then there is dawn and dusk, these too follow the three types, civil etc, but at a precise measurement of where the sun is. Civil dawn or dusk is when the sun is precisely is six degrees below the horizon, nautical dawn or dusk eighteen degrees below the horizon and astronomical dawn or dusk precisely eighteen degrees below the horizon. The spaces in between are called civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. Phew, I think that’s right, please do ask Google yourselves if interested although I’m not sure how we ordinary mortals know at what degree the sun to the horizon is at a particular time.  By the way, when the horizon becomes nearly too difficult to see this is known as the nautical phase as when sailors were navigating the seas many years ago it is the time when the stars just become visible and they could use the position of well-known stars in relation to the horizon in order to navigate. 

Another little tip I found was that when out walking and time is perhaps getting on you can tell how long it will be to sunset if you stretch your arm out, put your fingers together and each finger represents fifteen minutes so quite an accurate measure to sunset.

Come and see the wonderful skies that happen in the glorious Yorkshire Dales at sunrise and sunset and stay in one of our lovely Country Hideaways holiday cottages. Call me, Nadine, or my daughter Joanne on 01969 663559 to book over the telephone and for friendly help and advice or do please book online if you prefer.

Hear from you really soon!