When Does It Get Dark Where You Are ?

[SunnySouthCoast]

The sun is setting at around 9:30 pm here on the south coast at the moment & it is still light in the sky by 10 ish, though it's pretty dark out there now (10:35 pm). Does start getting light far too early for me though, I can't sleep without an eye mask

[Guest]

Under clear skies I doubt it would get truly dark in a line North of Liverpool.

Surely the line would be west and east of Liverpool?? :w00t:

Sorry.

[damianslaw]

Its gone quite dark outside in the past few minutes, suspect a bit more cloud cover as penerated the skies, certainly not as light at present as it can be under very clear skies..

[Guest]

Its gone quite dark outside in the past few minutes, suspect a bit more cloud cover as penerated the skies, certainly not as light at present as it can be under very clear skies..

Very dark up here tonight but it has clouded over from about 9pm onwards. No outdoors book reading without a lamp.

Edited June 17, 2010 by CatchMyDrift

[MAF]

I was sitting in my Hot Tub outside as you do last night at 11pm and with clear skies it was very evident a large area to the West had pure twilight (I’m only 52N).

I read once in the far north of Scotland you could read a paper at midnight (without a moon of course) at this time of year.

I was surprise how just going up to York (this time of year) also added a fair bit to the twilight world.

What’s it like where you are?

its never dark in London, well except for when there is a power cut there is so much light pollution here that i doubt its ever really night. it is quite something seeing people who live in cities, and have never seen a night sky, look up in disbelief as to the amount of stars there really are in the sky.

[SunnySouthCoast]

its never dark in London, well except for when there is a power cut there is so much light pollution here that i doubt its ever really night. it is quite something seeing people who live in cities, and have never seen a night sky, look up in disbelief as to the amount of stars there really are in the sky.

This is quite true, I didn't realise there were so many stars in the sky until I went camping out in the sticks. Cities have terrible levels of light pollution.

[RichardR]

Gets dark here about 10:30PM.

[coram]

It never gets truly dark here, with the sky a dark blue colour at its darkest, still it's dark enough and there's no way you would be able to read anything at midnight.

I think that's true of the countryside, but because of the pollution in northern cities it is in fact pretty much pitch black between 11pm and 4am. This is a huge relief to the legions of chimney sweeps in the north, who otherwise would have to work all night.

[shuggee]

Just watching BB Live and Divina is in what I'd say is 70% darkness, and here it's 80% daylight - quite a noticeable difference this time of year.

[Summer of 95]

The latest I've ever glimpsed the sun here is about 21:25 BST; latest sunset is between 21:38-21:41 depending on the source. Latest I've ever seen my shadow is more like 21:10; any lower and it's always too blurred by all the haze and often not a full disk. But even that needs a clear sky...........

Although we get astronomical twilight all night in midsummer; we don't get nautical twilight- the latest I've managed to see light at the horizon is about 00:15, and the earliest it's reappeared about 02:30. If it's cloudy it's pretty much dark by 23:00 and starts to get light about 03:30.

[frostyjoe]

I was really surprised last night, as the sky was blue in the horizon all night and you could see for miles without a torchlight, i thought it would get pitch dark but it didn't! and it was getting brighter at 3.30 and was fully bright by 4.10!! I don't think it got dark at all last night. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielxmichael/4542523664/ it was like that but a bit brighter.

Edited June 19, 2010 by frostyjoe

[Summer of 95]

Still seems to be a hint of light to the NNW now- as in a bluish tinge within 5 degrees or so of the horizon.

[sundog]

Last night was a clear night- by 11:30pm we were in twilight by 3:00am we were back into twilight,the darkest part of the night being from about 1am -2 am although never totally dark.

[frostyjoe]

Last night was a clear night- by 11:30pm we were in twilight by 3:00am we were back into twilight,the darkest part of the night being from about 1am -2 am although never totally dark.

Don't we not get twilight all night?

[Osbourne One-Nil]

There are three definitions of twilight, which each being slightly darker than the previous. Civil twilight (when most people consider it to be twilight), nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight, each defined by the angular distance of the cun below the horizon. In the north of England, there are several weeks either side of midsummer's day when it doesn't get darker than astronomical twilight, whereas in the north of Scotland, I imagine it doesn't get darker than civil twilight all night long.

I took this photo at about 1am on Saturday morning (local midnight in effect), and it shows how the northern horizon doesn't get dark at all at this time of year.

[Wilxy]

Im gunna attempt to stay up and see if il see a twilight tonight looked out at 12am and was a hint of light to my N so il have another look tonight.

[frostyjoe]

There are three definitions of twilight, which each being slightly darker than the previous. Civil twilight (when most people consider it to be twilight), nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight, each defined by the angular distance of the cun below the horizon. In the north of England, there are several weeks either side of midsummer's day when it doesn't get darker than astronomical twilight, whereas in the north of Scotland, I imagine it doesn't get darker than civil twilight all night long.

I took this photo at about 1am on Saturday morning (local midnight in effect), and it shows how the northern horizon doesn't get dark at all at this time of year.

Is that Nautical twilight? I remember seeing a really bright twilight last night at 1am and the sky was still blue and you could still see things, but then at about 2am the twilight got darker, so the first one must've been cival twilight?

[Osbourne One-Nil]

It would have been nautical twilight - the different definitions can be found here. By 2am, the sky should have been getting lighter as local midnight where you are would have been around 1.30am, but it's difficult for the eye to judge these things sometimes, and other factors like whether you'd been inside with lights on can greatly affect the sensitivity of the eye to faint light.

[frostyjoe]

It would have been nautical twilight - the different definitions can be found here. By 2am, the sky should have been getting lighter as local midnight where you are would have been around 1.30am, but it's difficult for the eye to judge these things sometimes, and other factors like whether you'd been inside with lights on can greatly affect the sensitivity of the eye to faint light.

Whats local midnight, i have no clue.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Local midnight is the time when the sun is furthest under the horizon, and local midday is when the sun is at its highest point above the horizon. It differs from actual midday according to your distance east or west of the Greenwich Meridian. So if the sun is highest above the horizon at midday in London, where the Greenwich Meridian is, because you're 3 or so degrees west of that, the sun will reach its highest point about 12 minutes later, or 12.12pm - that's your local midday.

[Gilly]

Here in Inverness it was still daylight at 11.30pm last night and was daylight again at 2.00am so very little darkness just a twilight in between.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Gilly

[Summer of 95]

Is that Nautical twilight? I remember seeing a really bright twilight last night at 1am and the sky was still blue and you could still see things, but then at about 2am the twilight got darker, so the first one must've been cival twilight?

Civil Twilight: Sun <6 degrees below horizon

Nautical Twilight: <12 degrees

Astronomical Twilight: <18 degrees

Civil Twilight, when it's legally daylight: lighting-up time starts at the beginning of it, is only possible all night above 60.5 degrees North- only Shetland manages this in the UK.

Nautical Twilight is named because it's when people aboard ship can still make out the horizon and objects on it- it's light enough to tell the sea from the sky. The brighter stars appear during nautical twilight. This is only possible all night >54.5 degrees (roughly a line from Middlesbrough to Belfast).

Astronomical Twilight: the sky is only completely dark when this ends. So you can't see everything possible in a truly dark sky (6th magnitude stars with the naked eye, deep-sky objects with optics) until this is over. When the sun is only 13-14 degrees below the horizon you can still see some light at a point above it (but can't make out the whole horizon); at 17.5 degrees below it's probably only the fact that you can't see that galaxy in the telescope that makes it "twilight". Possible above 48.5 degrees; this includes all the UK.

[Cheese Rice]

There are three definitions of twilight, which each being slightly darker than the previous. Civil twilight (when most people consider it to be twilight), nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight, each defined by the angular distance of the cun below the horizon. In the north of England, there are several weeks either side of midsummer's day when it doesn't get darker than astronomical twilight, whereas in the north of Scotland, I imagine it doesn't get darker than civil twilight all night long.

I took this photo at about 1am on Saturday morning (local midnight in effect), and it shows how the northern horizon doesn't get dark at all at this time of year.

Just got in and its like that now and has been all nigt and its 2:55 am, only noticed it till now.

[Mark Bayley]

Already light here, was starting to go light about 03:00

[AderynCoch]

Clear skies for the summer solstice. Woohoo!

I'd stay up late if I didn't have to work the next day.