[HPFGU-OTChatter] Calling Scots

[Shaun Hately]

On 15 Sep 2003 at 17:04, Shaun Hately wrote:

> On 15 Sep 2003 at 2:07, derannimer wrote:
> 
> > Hey, sorry to bug you guys with this, but what time does it get dark at night in 
> > Northern Scotland in late October? Say, Halloween? 
> > 
> > I tried to find someplace that would tell me online, but they all seem to require 
> > longitude and such, and I haven't a clue.
> 
> OK - sunset in Northern Scotland on October 31 is about 4:00 - 4:30pm. 
> It does differ a bit but back when I was examining the astronomy 
> contained in Order of the Phoenix, consensus arrived at three likely 
> regions Hogwarts is located in - and the time for those regions varies 
> from 3:56pm - 4:32pm.
> 
> However that far north, there's a fairly long twilight - so it probably 
> doesn't actually get dark dark for around an hour after sunset.

I've actually dragged my books out to check what calculations I need to 
do to work out twilight limits (-8

Twilight is divided into three separate sections.

Civil twilight begins at the moment of sunset, and is the period of time 
when it's still light enough to do many things - you probably can't read 
a book by the light but you can still see fairly well. It's followed by 
nautical twilight which can probably most simply be defined as being 
dark - but still light enough to avoid walking into trees (-8. This is 
followed by astronomical twilight - which for all intents and purposes 
is properly dark, but doesn't technically end until it's dark enough 
that every one of the normally visible stars can be seen.

At the likely Hogwarts locations (northern Scotland), around Halloween, 
civil twilight lasts about 42 minutes after sunset. Nautical twilight 
lasts about a further 45 minutes (so 87 minutes after sunset), and 
astronomical twilight about 46 minutes after that (133 minutes after 
sunset total).


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
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