Setting up your telescope, for example, is very difficult during the night. You should either set it up during the day and wait for the night to fall, which means that you will need some food and water beside you, or you can bring an artificial light source like a strong flashlight.
If we told you that the further north you are, the longer twilight lasts during summer, you would probably not be able to explain exactly why that is the case. The reason is that there are multiple factors that play into the calculations.
Because of that, it is difficult to estimate the actual time it gets dark unless you have a lot of experience. Let us take a look at the different factors.
The Equator is defined as the line drawn around the Earth at the middle between the poles. Latitude is what we call a geographic coordinate. The distance from the Equator will play a role in how soon the Sun sets. Now let us consider something: the Sun does not really rise or sets also. This is actually an illusion because of the round shape of the Earth. So, latitude decides the duration of day and night, and thus the duration of twilight.
Along with that, it also decides the position of the Sun at noon which, can be anywhere between the top of your head and the horizon. One rule of thumb is that from the March equinox until the September equinox, the farther north you go, the earlier the sunrises are and the later the sunsets are.
This is because the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun during that period. As you probably know, days get longer during the summer and shorter during the winter. This also means that the twilights last longer during the summer. But things tend to get complicated really quickly, so take your time trying to wrap your head around it. The December solstice is the time when the Sun reaches the most southerly point in the sky.
This results in the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. This makes the December solstice the Summer solstice in the south. For the northern hemisphere , the June solstice is the summer solstice , so the longest day is in June.
One would easily think that the summer solstice should have the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset — it makes sense because that would allow for the longest day easily.
But this is not the case in most places. That is, just like the previous example, very logical, but the truth is different. When the North hemisphere is experiencing summer, that is because the North is tilted towards the Sun and receives more sunlight than during winter. The opposite is true for the South hemisphere. Altitude obviously makes a difference in Sunset time. This is a rare phenomenon in areas which have tall mountains nearby.
The Sun sets behind a part of the mountain but re-appears behind a different part of the mountain before setting again. But in modern times, a different type of double sunset is also possible. The building Burj Khalifa is so tall that you can watch a sunset twice during the same day.
If you watch a sunset at the ground, then take the elevator, you will be able to experience a second sunset. The difference is most often around 3 minutes. Here we will have a table with sunset and twilight times across a few major cities in the world. You will see that during the same day, the sunset time will be drastically different because of the different conditions described before.
We will provide a table for July and one for January so that you can see how big the differences can actually be during summer and winter. Keep in mind that places in the South hemisphere have the seasons inverted when compared to the northernern hemisphere. However, as still, light pollution is there in the sky, it is not possible to observe more than this. So, this phase will start once the sun reaches 6-degree beneath the horizon.
The end of the phase will come when it will reach around degree beneath the horizon. Even though it gets quite dark during this phase, it is still not pitch-black dark that are common during nighttime. You can determine this phase by noticing the color of the sky; during this time the sky has a dark blue shade. Along with star constellations, you can even observe some celestial objects of higher magnitude during this particular phase. Thus, it is advised to stay clear of the horizon during this phase if want to stargaze during this time period.
During this phase, only a small amount of light pollution present can be observed near the horizon. Now, it is quite evident why getting familiar with these three mentioned phases is recommended if you accurately want to know how long after sunset does it get dark. When Astronomical twilight ends, nighttime will begin during which zero to an insignificant amount of light pollution is being emitted from the sun.
So, after night time you will observe astronomical twilight first, then nautical twilight, civil twilight, and finally sunrise.
Hopefully, by now you can understand how much time it takes to get dark before and after sunset and sunrise. Yet, you must be wondering exactly how long after sunset it get dark in your region. But, first of all, you need to understand the not all places are the same on this earth, and this is the reason why in the further north region it is observed that twilight lasts longer in summer. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
About Us. Privacy Policy. Skip to content. After the sun sets, how long does it take to get dark? Why does this differ so much? How long does it it take to get dark in the United States? Why does the sun set in the West? In this part of the world, the Sun travels farther through the sky each day and covers the angle representing twilight in a much shorter period of time. However, the further north or south you go, the more diagonal those rays become.
Our Earth is tilted This tilt is what gives us our seasons. In the summer months, the Earth is tilted toward the Sun. These longer days factor into longer periods of twilight, and therefore it takes longer for the sky to go completely dark. Winter brings about the opposite effect. Unfortunately, this also means it sets that much sooner each night.
Days are known to be short, and the Sun spends most of its time below the horizon. Twilight is also much shorter, meaning it gets dark that much faster. Both location on Earth and time of year together can lead to some amazing extremes when it comes to day and night. For instance, in the far northern reaches of countries such as Norway and Finland, the Sun can take hours to set on a spring or fall day. There is no twilight and certainly no darkness during those summer days.
Days of complete light may seem like a treat unless you have trouble sleeping , but the opposite happens at these polar locations in the winter months.
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