Page 454

[Alexandr Korol]

when the sun is just about to set but hasn’t yet, or when it has just set but it still seems light, though it is no longer visible. And he said that this time is very important. So, accordingly, I start reading on the internet about what this is. And here is what is described: “For most people, twilight is a transition period between day and night when the sun is no longer visible but it is not yet dark, or when the sun has not yet appeared above the horizon but the night has already retreated. The sun at this moment is below the horizon, but the Earth’s atmosphere reflects and scatters sunlight.” Next, I open Wikipedia. I had just been sketching a certain diagram in a circle, with a cross-section of day and night, trying to depict the twilight zone, and there turned out to be two of them. And in such an unusual way, this stick where the number 6 would be if on a clock – I placed two more small marks to the right and left of it, and because of this, my diagram started forming a pentagram-like shape, but that’s beside the point. Now, I just see a similar diagram as I open Wikipedia for the first time. Here it is written: “Twilight is the time interval during which the Sun is below the horizon, and natural illumination on Earth is provided by the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere and the residual luminescent glow of the atmosphere itself, caused by the Sun’s ionizing radiation.” Then a diagram is shown. Next, twilight is described: “Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and darkness.” “Depending on the angle of the Sun below the horizon, twilight is classified into civil, nautical (marine), and astronomical twilight. Twilight at any latitude below the polar circle, depending on the definition of night, can be considered either as part of the night or as part of the time between night and day. Twilight is called morning (before sunrise) or evening (after sunset).” And so it turns out that these two types of twilight – before sunrise when the Sun emerges from the night and after sunset when the Sun has set – are real, and they also have different names, and they are mentioned in mythology. I will get to that now. It is written in Wikipedia: “On planets without an atmosphere, there is no twilight.” This is also a very important point because it is precisely this fine line – something that glows, something that can only be seen during twilight. And where there is no atmosphere – meaning this atmosphere is something key – then there would be no twilight. It is written, “On Earth, three types of twilight are distinguished: civil, nautical (marine), and astronomical, depending on the angle of the solar disk (the center of the solar disk) below the true horizon.” The degrees are listed there.