Watching Nighttime Rise

It’s usually at this point that folks get a nervous look in their eye and step slowly away from me. But I’m quite serious about what I’m doing; I’m watching night rise. The fact is that nearly everyone has noticed the phenomenon, but few have ever realized what it is they were seeing.

The next time you have a cloudless sky, try it yourself. Face east just after the sun sets in the west. Low against the eastern horizon, you’ll see an immense purple arc, bordered by a fringe of pink just above it. Many people think it’s just haze or pollution. Not true. This is the shadow of our Earth.

Early risers can see the same phenomenon around sunrise, only then it appears low in the west. Just before sunrise, face west and you’ll see the arc as it sets behind the terrain. Your best chance to spot it is when you’ve got a cloudless sky with a low horizon, such as the ocean or desert.

This occurs because our planet is a solid body that casts its shadow in the direction away from the sun. When the sun sets, for example, we find ourselves on the boundary between daytime and nighttime. Sunlight continues to illuminate the atmosphere in the west -- that’s what gives the sky a light blue color -but our solid planet blocks the sunlight from reaching the air in the east so that part of the sky appears a darker blue or purple color. And between the darker

Lost

BY TRACY BECKERMAN

“Have you seen the round knife rolley thing?” asked my husband, moving his arm back and forth in a slicing motion.

“The what?” I asked, half paying attention while I perused the internet on my laptop.

“The round knife rolley thing,” he said. “You know, for slicing pizza.”

“You mean the pizza wheel?” I asked.

“Yeah, that.”

“It’s in the drawer with the other large utensils.” I pointed to the drawer next to the stovetop.

“And what about those big, long grabby things?” he asked, snapping his hands together like a crab. “You know, for taking the food out of the pan?”

“You mean the tongs?” I asked.

“Yeah, those.” and brighter parts of the atmosphere lies a fringe of pink -- also known as the “Belt of Venus” or the “anti-twilight arc” -- illuminated by the reddened sunset light that’s passing through the atmosphere.

Depending on the clarity of the air, the Earth’s shadow usually appears most prominent 10 minutes or so after