Landour's sky at dusk, in Mussoorie

From the archive record

Beautiful sunset! Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon as a result of Earth's rotation. The Sun will set exactly due west at the equator on the spring and fall equinoxes, each of which occurs only once a year. Subcategories of twilight The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun's disk disappears below the horizon. Near to the horizon, atmospheric refraction causes the ray path of light from the Sun to be distorted to such an extent that geometrically the Sun's disk is already about one diameter below the horizon when a sunset is observed. Sunset is distinct from twilight, which has three phases, the first being civil twilight, which begins once the Sun has disappeared below the horizon, and continues until