Welcome to this week’s Friday Fiction Facts! Sciency things fiction-writers need to know.
This crossed my Twitter feed this week and I decided it would make a good quick Friday Fiction Fact.
You know how the saying goes: “The darkest hour is just before the dawn” or, if you prefer, “It’s always darkest just before the dawn.” Either way, is it really? Let’s see what a couple of sharp astrophysicists have to say:
@roseveleth ?, b/c I suspect you might know someone who knows: is darkest hr really right before dawn? Google searches have been unhelpful.
— Angela Chen (@chengela) September 19, 2013
@roseveleth @chengela @DrMRFrancis No, darkest hour is sometime around midnight or whenever it’s really overcast and the moon’s not up. — Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 19, 2013
— Matthew R. Francis (@DrMRFrancis) September 19, 2013
@chengela @DrMRFrancis @AstroKatie Thanks friends! That’s what I assumed but I figured y’all would actually know.
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) September 19, 2013
So there you have it, right from the experts’ mouths. Discuss …
Not to disagree with noted astrophysicists, but I thought the darkest hour would be the halfway point between local sunset and sunrise, changing with the seasons. So, for example, if sunset is 7:18 PM EST and sunrise is 7:04 AM EST (11 h 46 m), then the darkest hour should be at the halfway point, or approximately 1:12 AM.
I’ve probably put too much thought into this 😉
Science slays poetry once again.