 New Day Dawning: Sunrise
About forty minutes before sunrise on December 15, 2021.
I walk every morning before sunrise as a quiet and contemplative way to start my day. This morning I took pre-sunrise photos. I could not linger for the blue hour or the sunrise... but enjoyed the glow of the start of a new day. I was inspired to sing Cat Steven's version of Morning Has Broken (originally written in by Eleanor Farjeon in 1931 and set to a traditional Gaelic tune), and then remembered reading the Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor and illustrated by Peter Parnall.
Interesting Facts
- The sun does not rise and set in exactly the same place every day. Do you know why?
- We only see the light that is visible to us through our eyes. Other animals, with different kinds of eyes, see light differently than we do and therefore see the world differently too.
- The visible spectrum of light that we see, is made up of seven colors or wavelengths of light that make up the white, or yellow-looking, light we see when the whole spectrum shines together without being bent or refracted.
- The dawn chorus occurs in the spring and summer months at first light each morning. Listen this coming year to find out who is singing at the start of each day.
- The adage, "Red sky at night sailor's delight. Red sky in morning sailors take warning!" is based in fact but is not entirely correct. The sun sets in the west - the direction from which much of our weather moves in from. A red sunset means that there is at least 12 hours of clear weather to come. A red sunrise means that the clear weather system has passed to the east, but does not necessarily mean that bad weather is on its way... but is a heads-up that it may change.
Activities for Children and the Young at Heart
- Sun Diorama - make a sun diorama to show how sunrise and sunset change throughout the year at your home. When you do, you will be joining the people throughout time and the world over who have tracked the seasonal changing of sunrise and set. Background and directions for making a Sun Diorama.
- Can you bend light? Give it a try! You'll need a prism... and then you can reveal ROY G BIV... learn more about visible light at this NASA webpage. What color has the shortest wave length? Why do we sometimes see red sunrises?
- Light Vision - Check out this UK Natural History Museum page to see how a variety of animals see the world.
- Create a sunrise song! Read The Way to Start a Day and listen to this online dawn chorus from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for inspiration.
A few minutes later, still pre-sunrise.
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