The magic of the first ray of daylight

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
25 December 2023 Monday 15:52
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The magic of the first ray of daylight

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

There are many fans of photographing the sunrise. The refraction of light caused by the Earth's atmosphere causes light to be seen when the sun is still below the horizon line: aurora, dawn or morning twilight.

The word dawn arises from the Latin admanescĕre, a word made up of the prefix, the noun manes, which means "morning" and the suffix ecer, which indicates a "process."

According to the definition of the RAE, dawn is the moment when "daylight begins to appear." But is it possible to portray the first ray of the sun? This photograph taken in Igualada, in the Anoia region, for La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos, suggests as much.

As the year goes by, the sun changes where it rises and where it sets. In spring and summer for the northern hemisphere it rises between the East and the North (positive declination); in autumn and winter it rises between the East and the South (negative declination).

Regarding an observer, a star is at sunrise when it crosses the plane of the horizon and enters the observer's field of vision, that is, when "dawn rises."

The term also comes from Latin, in this case, ortus, which means "birth." This word is related to the verb orior (to arise, to be born), from which the word "east" comes, and to the Latin word origo (origin).