4 ms·
My bet would be refraction of the sunlight through the atmosphere. At sunrise and sunset light that reaches you on the ground is taking just about the longest p
by thatcherc 5y ago
My bet would be refraction of the sunlight through the atmosphere. At sunrise and sunset light that reaches you on the ground is taking just about the longest path through the atmosphere that it can, and gradient of the atmosphere's density is definitely going to add some bending to the light coming in from space.
- sixbrx 5y agoYeah, it's significant enough that my astro mount has a "King tracking rate" to account for this effect. Named for Edward King. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Skinner_King https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Skinner_King
- 123pie123 5y agoI was going to say something similar "we can see the Sun even when it is geometrically just below the horizon, at both sunrise and sunset. This is because of the refraction of the light from the Sun by the Earth's atmosphere--the Earth's atmosphere bends the path of the light so that we see the Sun in a position slightly different from where it really is." see http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/our-solar-system/52-our-solar-system/the-sun/observing-the-sun/194-why-can-we-see-the-sun-s-image-before-sunrise-and-after-sunset-beginner http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/our-solar-system/52-our-sol...