Outdoor Photography How To

Photographers revere the Golden Hour, but when does it actually get dark? You have a rough idea of when night falls where you live, but what if you’re traveling to a distant location in another time zone? Here’s a link to a US Navy website that will fetch all pertinent sunrise and sunset information that you need.

“Sunrise” and “sunset” are easy enough to understand, but there are a few more terms that describe natural light levels.

“Civil twilight” means that there is enough light to clearly distinguish the horizon (weather permitting) and identify objects without using artificial illumination.

“Civil dawn” is the moment when the geometric center of the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the morning. It is preceded by nautical twilight.

Similarly, “civil dusk” is the instant when the geometric center of the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the evening. It marks the beginning of nautical twilight.

“Nautical twilight” begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon.

Click on this link and enter a location. You’ll retrieve a chart similar to this one.

—Jon Sienkiewicz