Evening

Evening is the period of a day that starts at the end of the afternoon and overlaps with the beginning of night.[1][2] The exact times when evening begins and ends depend on location, time of year, and culture, but it is generally regarded as beginning when the Sun is low in the sky and lasting until the end of twilight. Depending on the speaker, it may start as early as 5 p.m.[1] and last until night. It may be used colloquially to include the last waning afternoon shortly before sunset.[3]

For other uses, see Evening (disambiguation).
Evening in Parambikkulam, Kerala, India
View on the bay of Naples, overlooking Mount Vesuvius at 7:30 p.m. local solar (standard) time

Etymology

The word is derived from the Old English ǣfnung, meaning 'the coming of evening, sunset, time around sunset', which originated from æfnian, meaning "become evening, grow toward evening". The Old English æfnian originated from æfen (eve), which meant "the time between sunset and darkness", and was synonymous with even (Old English æfen), which meant the end of the day. The use of "evening" dates from the mid 15th century.[4]

Astronomy

Despite the less favorable lighting conditions for optical astronomy, evening can be useful for observing objects orbiting close to the Sun. Evening (and morning) serves as the optimum time period for viewing the inferior planets Venus and Mercury.[5] It is a popular time to hunt for comets, as their tails grow more prominent as these objects draw closer to the Sun.[6] The evening (and morning) twilight is used to search for near-Earth asteroids that orbit inside the orbit of the Earth.[7] In mid-latitudes, spring evenings around the time of the equinox―that is, the March one in the Northern Hemisphere and the September equinox to the south of the equator―are favorable for viewing the zodiacal light.[8][9]

See also

References
  1. "Definition of evening in English". Collins. Collins. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  2. "evening - Definition of evening in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries – English. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016.
  3. "evening – Dictionary Definition".
  4. "even – Origin and meaning of even by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  5. Grego, Peter (2008). Recording Mercury and Venus. Venus and Mercury, and How to Observe Them. Astronomers’ Observing Guides. New York, NY.: Springer. pp. 177–206. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-74286-1_5.
  6. Marsden, B. G. (1994). Milani, Andrea; Di Martino, Michel; Cellino, A. (eds.). Search Programs for Comets. Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1993: Proceedings of the 160th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Belgirate, Italy, June 14-18, 1993. International Astronomical Union. Symposium no. 160. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 1. Bibcode:1994IAUS..160....1M.
  7. Ye, Quanzhi; et al. (February 2020). "A Twilight Search for Atiras, Vatiras, and Co-orbital Asteroids: Preliminary Results". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (2). arXiv:1912.06109. Bibcode:2020AJ....159...70Y. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab629c. 70.
  8. Byrd, Deborah; McClure, Bruce (27 September 2022). "Zodiacal light: All you need to know". EarthSky. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  9. Cladera, Antoni. "Zodiacal Light: The Definitive Photography Guide". photopills.com. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
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