Dusk

Dusk is the period of time at the end of evening twilight.

Dusk is the darkest stage of twilight in the evening.^[1] Pre-dusk, during early to intermediate stages of twilight, there may be enough light in the sky under clear-sky conditions to read outdoors without artificial illumination, but at the end of civil twilight, when the earth rotates to a point at which the center of the sun is at 6° below the local horizon, artificial illumination is required to read outside.^[2]

Technical definitions

Civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight.^[3] Dusk is the darkest part of evening twilight.

The time of dusk can be thought of relative to the time of twilight, which has several alternative technical definitions:

• Dusk as the last part of civil twilight ends when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time objects are distinguishable and some stars and planets are visible to the naked eye.
• Dusk as the last part of nautical twilight ends when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time, objects are no longer distinguishable, and the horizon is no longer visible to the naked eye.
• Dusk as the last part of astronomical twilight ends when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time the sun no longer illuminates the sky, and thus no longer interferes with astronomical observations.

Seattle, Washington at dusk

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  Dusk in Porto Covo, west coast of Portugal

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  Dusk seen from a plane window

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  View from Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, at dusk

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  Trees silhouette dusk sky

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  Dusk in Albi, France

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  Dusk in Vancouver, Canada

See also

• Dawn
• Sunrise
• Sunset
• Twilight

References

1. The Random House College Dictionary, "dusk".
2. U.S. Naval Observatory. Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions.
3. Van Flandern, T.; K. Pulkkinen (1980). "Low precision formulae for planetary positions". Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 31 (3). Bibcode:1979ApJS...41..391V. doi:10.1086/190623.