Sunset, dusk and twilight. What’s the difference?

1.   Sunset, dusk and twilight? What’s the difference?

We often hear the terms sunset and dusk used to refer to the same thing. But what is the difference?
Sunset is simply the point that the sun disappears over the horizon.
Twilight is the period between sunset and dusk. During twilight there is still light in the sky. There are three types of twilight: civil, nautical and astronomical.
Dusk is the point when the sun is at 18 degrees below the horizon and there is no longer any sunlight in the sky.

2.    Why is the sunset red?

3.    Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight.

There is a scientific basis in the old saying Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. It’s because the sun sets in the west and weather systems generally move in from the west. This means that if we see a lovely red sunset, there must be a clean front to the west and therefore the next 12 hours or so will be clear. The second half of the saying suggests ‘Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.’ While a red sunrise means that the good weather system has passed, it doesn’t necessarily follow that bad weather is on the way.

4.    Working out the sunset using your hands

There is an easy and surprisingly accurate way of calculating how long until sunset whenever you’re out on a walk.

Stretch out your arm as much as you can and count the number of fingers you can fit in between the sun and the horizon. Each finger is about 15 minutes of remaining sun time. If four of your fingers, or one hand fits there, you can directly say that it’s one hour to sunset.

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