Twilight time

"Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time, "  I think  of  that song by the Platters. So many shades of darkening blue in these short, short days of daylight as we approach  the winter solstice.

Twilight comes twice a day,  and in between day and night, the shades of  civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight.  

Earth Sky explains these three stages of twilight---

During civil twilight, there’s enough light to see, but people turn on their lights to drive a car, and the streetlights are starting to come on. The brightest planets appear during civil twilight.

During nautical twilight, terrestrial objects are visible, but you need artificial lights to carry on outdoor activities.

Astronomical twilight is the darkest stage of twilight. For stargazers, the fainter stars and other sky objects become visible.

You can read the whole article here.  

In the darkening blues of the twilight sky, other colors stand out---the black branches, orange berries, dark greens of evergreens, the high-visibility colors worn by runners and dog walkers.  The almost buttery yellow  of the rising moon.  The lights of jets arriving and departing, and that reddish dot in the east---that's Mars!

There are many poetic descriptions for the blues of the twilight sky---evening blue, twilight blue, indigo blue, spread across the sky like shades of blue jeans, like the indigo sky of Japanese prints.  Like the stone, Lapis Lazuli,  a night sky full of stars.

And maybe, you will think of that beautiful song by the Platters.