Evening is the period of a

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

that begins at the end of

daylight Daylight is the combination of all direct and indirect sunlight during the daytime. This includes direct sunlight, diffuse sky radiation, and (often) both of these reflected by Earth and terrestrial objects, like landforms and buildings. Sunlig ...

and overlaps with the beginning of

night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...

. It generally indicates the period of time when the sun is close to the horizon and comprises the periods of civil, nautical and astronomical

twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

. The exact times when evening begins and ends are subjective and depend on location and time of year. It may be used colloquially to include the last waning

daytime Daytime or day as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences Daylight, natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the ...

shortly before

sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

Etymology

The word is derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''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.

Start time

The ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' defines evening as varying according to daylight and lifestyle, but says that many people consider it to begin at 5 p.m. In a social context, the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

defines evening as "the time from about 6 p.m., or sunset if earlier". As such, there is no fixed consensus on when the period of evening starts.

Astronomy

Despite the less favorable lighting conditions for optical astronomy, evening can be useful for observing objects

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

ing close to the Sun. Evening (and morning) serves as the optimum time for viewing the inferior planets

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

and Mercury. It is a popular time to hunt for

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, as their tails grow more prominent as these objects draw closer to the Sun. The evening (and morning) twilight is used to search for near-Earth asteroids that orbit inside the orbit of the Earth. In mid-latitudes, spring evenings around the time of the

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

―that is, the March one in the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

and the September equinox to the south of the equator―are favorable for viewing the zodiacal light.

References

External links

* * Parts of a day {{time-stub

Etymology

Start time

Astronomy

See also

References

External links