"It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it." -Carl Sagan
I would argue the exact opposite, in fact: the beauty of a sunset, in all of its varieties and variations, is only enhanced the more you know about it.
Image credit: Dan Schroeder, via Picasa.
The next time you watch the Sun descend through the sky, towards the horizon, you might marvel at how the Sun remains the same size all the way down. At just slightly over half-a-degree, the Sun appears to drop at a constant rate throughout the afternoon and into early evening.
But there are some small changes…