ADusk and Dawn Obsolete?

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: ADusk and Dawn Obsolete?

# 17152 byHuebner, Jay on Nov. 27, 2002, 5:06 p.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

A few comments on adapting our eyes to light. On Earth with a perfectly
clear sky and flat horizon, sunrise takes 2 minutes from when the disk first
brakes the horizon until the last of the solar disk does. These numbers
come from the solar disk being half a degree wide and Earth's rotation being
15 degrees per hour. This is in the tropics where the Sun rises fairly
vertically. At the poles, where it is seldom clear, it can take much
longer, perhaps all day or several days, I am not sure, as it rises at a
shallow angle. Human eye-lids transmit about 30 % of the incident light
(more red than blue), so our eyes adapt to the ambient light even while we
sleep. So, if we are sleeping in a sun-lit room, we are about used to the
light when we wake up. This is in contrast to coming out of a dark movie
house in the middle of the day, where it feels like our dark adapted eyes
are blasted by all of the light.
I suspect taking a few minutes for the light to come fully on in a space
habitat would be appreciated by most folks living there.
Happy holiday, Jay Huebner