Change

As I was observing the sunset, I wondered if the sun had any impact on the change of the environment now during the fall season. When I first started observing the sunset I could still be outside with shorts on and with no sweater. Now going into November, the sunset happens earlier and I could begin to feel the crisp air. I figured that with the time change the sun will set earlier and it will begin to feel late even though it is still pretty early. The sunset now looks unbelievable; I could clearly see the bright colors that a person would find on a pallet painted onto the sky. 

          My photo taken 11/05

Although Reno is known to have bipolar weather, the transition from season to season can be clearly seen. Fall is my favorite time of year because it's the time where the weather starts to change and the colors of leaves begin to turn into beautiful colors. 

According to Keith Tackett, a fall leaf begins to take on its characteristics once there is a decline in sunlight and when the length of night time is increased. The decreasing amount of sunlight and the change in temperature makes leaves stop making their food (Chlorophyl) which is why leaves change color (Tackett). Fall is when day time is shorter and night time starts to be longer. The absence of light causes the change in the environment during the seasons. It makes sense to me now because once the sky starts to get cold and the sunset happens earlier, change is bound to happen because of the change in temperature. 

                      Works Cited 

Tackett, Keith. " Why Leaves Change Color." USDA Storm Prediction Services. N.p. 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. 

Clouds Effect

The ideal way of the sky producing the best sunset is to have less clouds. I've noticed that when the sky is clear with little clouds scattered, the sunset appears to be brighter and more vivid. Why? According to Stephen F. Corfidi ("The Colors of Sunset and Twilight"), clouds take up most of the wavelengths and the last red-orange rays and reflect it to the ground. Having less clouds and higher elevated clouds is the recipe for the best looking sunset. On Monday, half of the sky appeared to be scattered with clouds and the colors of the sky seemed lighter than usual. The clouds being so little and scattered had an effect on the sunset. The sunset colors were more lighter making the yellow color more noticeable. As the sun was setting, the blue was dark in an instant making night time come sooner than I imagined. Now with the time change, I am eager to see the sunset happen earlier and see if this has any affect on the image of the sunset. 

          My photo taken on 10/27

            My photo taken on 10/27

                       Work Cited 

Corfidi F., Stephen. "The Colors of Sunset and Twilight." Storm Prediction Center. N.p. 6 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Nov 2014.

Life of A Party

Every sunset has its own characteristics. As the time of day comes, the sky gives us the great phenomena of a sunset. Every time I observe the sunset, it keeps setting a little bit earlier each day. With the seasons changing, now going into fall, night creeps up on us a little faster than usual. This is my favorite time of year because not only is it pumpkin flavored everything, but nature has a pleasurable way of showing change. September 9th was the first day I started observing the sunset. During this time, the fire that was nearby had broken out and made the appearance of a dark, poorly lit sky. I figured this was an inconvenience for me because the sunset was always hidden behind the thick gray smoke causing it to look gloomy. Now the sky is completely cleared making it easier for me to see the colors splattered everywhere giving the sky life.

                                                         My photo taken Oct. 19th 2014

                                                              

                                                                  Sun Dance

When the sun goes down, at twilight,

The horizon sets ablaze a colourful show,

And elsewhere will be a beautiful sunrise,
As we wait for the night sky to say hello;
The magic takes place every day, everywhere,

And it's never the same any day, anywhere;

I sit in silence watching the sun dance,
The sight of it sending chills up my spine;
Half conscious in a slight state of trance,
In the colorful sky, I see your graceful smile;
The dusk falls into a beautiful starry night,
Leaving me gazing, till you to come alight.

Athif Ahmed

"Sun Dance" by Athif Ahmed is a beautiful poem. It takes the words right out my mouth explaining how beautiful the sunset really is. We can be witnessing the sunset but someone else out there might be watching the sunrise. It's amazing how life works and to be able to the see the sunset is just one of the most amazing events the world has to offer. Seeing the sky transition from blue to the bright colors on a pallet is an occurrence that is breathtaking and should be witnessed everyday.  

Work Cited

Ahmed, Athif. "Sun Dance." All Poetry. N.p. n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.

Sunrise and Sunset

The sunrise and sunset are both without a doubt two beautiful events. These both mark a significant time of the day and both display a visual effect that makes us all stop and admire the beauty. 

As I was observing the sunset, I noticed that the vibrant colors of pink, orange, red and sometimes violet are more vivid and bright at this time. What I wondered was if the colors of the sunrise look just as bright as the colors of the sunset. Or if the colors during the sunrise are the same as the sunset. On October 17th I had gotten up a little earlier then I usually wake up just to see the sunrise. The colors were as bright but it looked more as the orange sherbet ice cream. One thing that's different between the sunrise and sunset is that during the sunrise, the sky looks dark and as the sun rises up the color splashes all over the sky illuminating it like a hot air balloon would look like when it's being lit with fire. When a sunset happens, it's completely different. I could clearly see that the sky slowly gets darker as night sets upon us. 

My (sunrise) photo taken on 10/17

                   
Coach Erica's photo taken on 10/17/14 at the Lowry football game  (sunset) 

I have always wondered why the sun sets to the west and rises in the east. According to starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov, it said "Earth rotates spins toward the east, and that's why the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars all rise in the east and make their way westward across the sky. Suppose you are facing east - the planet carries you eastward as it turns, so whatever lies beyond that eastern horizon eventually comes up over the horizon and you see it." This is so interesting. I also didn't know that the stars rise east and make their way westward. This answered my question and for those wondering why or where the stars, moon and sun rise, that is the information on that. 

All Around the World

The sunset is different every time. All around the world the sunset occurs on different times and it can obviously look different every time. Here is a picture off of www.die.net which basically shows how the sunlight looks like when the sun is setting. 

             Photo from www.die.net

According to this photo and website, "This is a generated illustration of the earth's patterns of sunlight and darkness." I happen to think this photo looks really cool. I like how you can see where the sun is still up and where it's already dark. In China, it's already the next day when we're having a sunset here in the U.S. (This i happened to Google) The time zones of each part of the world are fascinating in the sense that we could be having dinner while someone else in the world are getting up to get ready for their day.

Why the sunset changes the sky's colors is something that catches my attention so much. On the website www.kidzworld.com it said that "A sunset will have more bright and vivid colors  when there is dust particles or pollution in the air. This is because the particles reflect light in all directions, resulting in more yellows and reds." But I wonder how that all happens. There must be a lot of dust particles in the air for the sky to be changing color each day. That's crazy! 

Beauty Within

The sunset being so different and beautiful each day I decided to look more into them. Why does the sky change colors as the sun sets? Why does this happen? 

According to sciencedaily.com, "If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight. The other colors continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.” I'm impressed by this. I love the whole science idea behind why we have sunsets because it catches my attention so much. I'm eager to compare the sunset and the sunrise because I want to see what is different and what is the same between them. 

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

- Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds 

This poem is absolutely beautiful to me. It says all the right things about a sunset. I believe the sunset adds life to the sky and it's what makes it look gorgeous during this time of day. What I want to research next is when the sunset happens here, where in the world is the sun rising? 

Sceneries

As many times as I've seen the sunset, I never really paid close attention to it. I started my English observation project on September 14th, 2014. Being two weeks already with this project I've been seeing different things each day.

Recently, where I live there was a big fire that had broken out nearby and the sky was smokey and gloomy. I didn't expect the sunset to be so sad at this time but it was. I didn't know that the smoke would have had such a big impact on the way the sunset looked. All I could see when I would observe the sunset was just a little dot in the sky slowly fading away. The smoke had pretty much covered the whole sky and I thought of it as an inconvenience. I couldn't see the real beautiful sunset I thought I'd be observing because of the smoke.

September 23,2014 the smoke had finally started to disappear. since the time I started observing this had been the only evening I had been able to capture the beautiful scenery of a sunset. the sky looked brighter and full of life with colors forming in all directions. Here is a picture I had taken:

            My photo from 9/23

I couldn't take my eyes off of this. I just think it's amazing how nature works. But what I want to research in the future is what makes the sky change color during a sunset? Why does it happen? 

Over the next few days I will be observing I'm wondering if the sunset will look different now that it's fall. I'm questioning if there will be different colors I will be able to see or not.