# It's dawn - at 8.50 am **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 20, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422 "2018-12-20T14:49:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/1 "2018-12-20T14:49:58Z")
I can just see the Sun starting to peep over the horizon. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/2 "2018-12-20T14:55:21Z")
Wouldn’t be like this is you were Southern Piper. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/3 "2018-12-20T16:23:45Z")
And I thought 0707 sucked… The only good news is today the daylight is only six seconds less than yesterday. We are rounding the corner! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/4 "2018-12-20T17:28:12Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I can just see the Sun starting to peep over the horizon. Nitpick: that’s _sunrise_, not _dawn_. Dawn, per Wikipedia, is “the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise.” IOW, when the sky in the east first becomes visibly lighter than the rest of the night sky. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/5 "2018-12-20T18:23:22Z")
9:13 here. Stop hogging the sunlight. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/6 "2018-12-20T22:55:46Z")
Tomorrow, at 5:22 pm is the Winter Solstice. Sunset is already a few minutes later, but sunrise still has a few minutes until the latest. Then we just have to get through winter. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/7 "2018-12-21T00:42:09Z")
And it was dusk when I left the office at 5 pm. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/8 "2018-12-21T00:49:42Z")
Northern Piper, where do you live? I don’t want anything more specific than state or province (or nation, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/9 "2018-12-21T03:50:22Z")
Stop complaining. The people who live in Barrow, Alaska last saw any sun light at all November 18th at around 1:45 pm. They won’t see any sun light for the next 65 days! In other words it will be dark until January 22 and then the sun will “shine” for only for 57 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/10 "2018-12-21T03:54:37Z")
Here’s a live webcam from Tromso, Norway, a city of about 25,000 (!) just a degree or two south of Barrow. True, the sun will not come up for a couple months, but it’s not like they’re constantly living in total darkness. They will have a few hours of what’s known as civil twilight (enough light to do ordinary activities) each day. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5EI5LiY-xb4/maxresdefault.jpg "Livestream Sentrum") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EI5LiY-xb4) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/11 "2018-12-21T04:08:47Z")
If it’s sunup at 8:50AM, you must be quite a bit north of me, and I’m near the 45th parallel – halfway to the North Pole. Sunup here is 7:30AM-ish now, but it usually takes another 10 minutes or more before I see the actual sun. We have a phenomenon we call “the mountains of Michigan” many mornings. Even though the skies are mostly clear overhead, over Lake Michigan to the East are a rim of clouds near the horizon, caused by temperature differences between the lake and sky. This means the sun has to rise over those “mountains” before it shines in my window, but when it does, it is a sudden, powerful streak of horizontal light. My furnace shuts off for a few morning hours on those days. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/12 "2018-12-21T04:20:52Z")
I’m jealous. Maybe I should look into Barrow. (Sun is the evil.) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/13 "2018-12-21T04:23:17Z")
**Northern Piper** is at roughly 50.5N. I’m at about 52.1. But we’re also in a bit of a geographical oddity where we’re effectively DST year round. Official sunrise here today was 9:13 but sunset wasn’t till 4:56 which puts local solar noon at 1:05pm (bit earlier for **Piper** who’s also a bit east of me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/14 "2018-12-21T07:19:04Z")
Sunrise here, at just north of 49 degrees, was 8:25 AM today. Sunset was at 4:33 PM. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/15 "2018-12-21T13:03:46Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Northern Piper, where do you live? I don’t want anything more specific than state or province (or nation, for that matter). On the shores of the [Mighty Wascana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wascana_Creek), due north of Texas. Way north. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/16 "2018-12-21T14:14:33Z")
Going to work in the dark, with freezing rain just for fun! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/17 "2018-12-21T15:34:01Z")
In a week, I’ll experience sunrise at 5:41 am. The next day it’ll be at 4:55 am, and a few days later, it’ll be up all day. I’m psyched. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/18 "2018-12-21T15:38:10Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > The people who live in Barrow, Alaska last saw any _direct_ > [@](#): > > sun light at all November 18th at around 1:45 pm. FTFY. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/19 "2018-12-21T18:59:22Z")
One of the oddest experiences of my life was walking around Edmonton at 10 PM in late June and seeing the sun out while the streets were deserted and all the stores closed. This is just the opposite side of the coin. Here in Montreal, the sun rose at 7:32, but we are 1.5 degrees east of the center of the time zone, so it would be 7:38 there. Of course, we are also 5 degrees further south. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422/20 "2018-12-21T19:07:40Z")
It seems I’m approximately the same latitude as **Northern Piper**. But from tomorrow the days get longer. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-dawn-at-8-50-am/826422.md?page=2)