Dusk

The plague of mosquitoes is a constant source of conversation at Li'l Peach.  If you're an Eastoner, you know that the Board of Health has suggested curtailing outdoor activities at dawn and dusk, but when exactly is dusk? Gil from the Board of Health let everyone know that you could get a calendar that tells you the approximate time of dusk from their website. Now I always thought that dusk was the time on both sides of sunset when things started to get dark. Wrong! According to the calendar dusk is the "time period between when the sun sets and it gets completely dark." Today through September 22 the approximate time is 6:45 pm trending towards the 6:15 which becomes the approximate time on the 23rd. (At least one OA sports team is technically violating the voluntary ban by holding practice until 7)

Luckily for us, Richard, an attorney, was at the Peach during this discussion. You have to know that lawyers have been down with this stuff since Abraham Lincoln won a case by using an almanac to show a jury that a witness couldn't see what they claimed to see because it was the dark of the moon. According to Richard, dusk officially begins when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and lasts for 34 minutes. A quick visit to Wikipedia confirmed that "civil dusk" occurs when the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. A rough definition of civil dusk is when on a clear night, you can still see the horizon, but the brightest stars and planets are already out.

Our resident attorney knew about this because dusk is the legal time to turn on your auto lights. It's actually called "lighting up time" in England (for American hippies lighting up time was not clock specific). It's also the time when the penalties for burglary go up apparently because "back in the day" all good people supposedly went to bed at dusk to save on candles.

FYI there is also nautical dusk (sun at 12 degrees below the horizon) when the horizon is too indistinct to use for navigation, and the outline of outdoor objects may be visible, but detailed outdoor work is impossible. Wikipedia assures us this is a swell time to launch an attack on a fort if you are a Native American. Finally there is astronomical dusk when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon and even the dimmest stars and nebulae visible with the naked eye can be seen.

It is interesting that the Board of Health has not issued a warning about the period immediately before dusk. That's the time between sunset and dusk called twilight. Yes, the danger period for vampires begins BEFORE the peak period of mosquito activity. Perhaps you've heard the old saying that "the early vampire gets the virgin?" And apparently the movie rights and a TV show also. So protect yourself, lock your doors, and hang up the garlic at sunset!