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23-514: Solar midnight is the time opposite to solar noon , when the Sun is closest to the nadir , and the night is equidistant from sunset and sunrise . Due to the advent of time zones , which regularize time across a range of meridians , and daylight saving time , solar midnight rarely coincides with 12 midnight on the clock. Solar midnight depends on longitude and time of the year rather than on time zone . In ancient Roman timekeeping , midnight

46-500: A device for creating clouds in the laboratory, so that he could make a synthetic, small-scale glory. His work led directly to the cloud chamber , a device for detecting ionizing radiation for which he and Arthur Compton received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927. In China, the phenomenon is called Buddha's light (or halo). It is often observed on cloud-shrouded high mountains, such as Huangshan and Mount Emei . Records of

69-599: A mountain or tall building, glories are often seen in association with a Brocken spectre the apparently enormously magnified shadow of an observer, cast (when the sun is low) on clouds below the mountain on which the viewer is standing. The name derives from the Brocken , the tallest peak of the Harz mountain range in Germany. Because the peak is above the cloud level and the area is frequently misty, conditions conducive to casting

92-409: A rainbow, outdoor glories are centred on the antisolar (or, in case of the moon, antilunar) point, which coincides with the shadow of the observer's head. Because this point is diametrically opposite to the sun's (or moon's) position in the sky, it usually lies below the observer's horizon except at sun (or moon) rise and set. Outdoor glories are commonly observed from aircraft. In the latter case, if

115-569: A shadow on a cloud layer are common. Giant shadows that seemed to move by themselves due to movement of the cloud layer (this movement is another part of the definition of the Brocken spectre), and that were surrounded by glories, may have contributed to the reputation the Harz mountains hold as a refuge for witches and evil spirits. In Goethe 's Faust , the Brocken is called the Blocksberg and

138-436: Is gratifying to discover in the elegant but seemingly abstract theory of complex angular momentum an explanation for these two natural phenomena [Glories and 10th order Rainbows], and to find there an unexpected link between them. Most 20th century work on the phenomenon of rainbows and glories has focused on determining the correct intensity of light at each point in the phenomenon, which does require quantum theories. In 1947,

161-576: Is neither before nor after noon, and midnight is exactly twelve hours before and after noon, neither abbreviation is correct. However, many digital representations of time are configured to require an "a.m." or "p.m." designation, preventing the correct absence of such designators at midnight. In such cases, there is no international standard defining which arbitrary selection is best. In the United States and Canada, digital clocks and computers commonly display 12 a.m. at midnight. The 30th edition of

184-425: Is red on the outside and bluish towards the centre. Due to its appearance, the phenomenon is sometimes mistaken for a circular rainbow , but the latter has a much larger diameter and is caused by different physical processes. Glories arise due to wave interference of light internally refracted within small droplets. Depending on circumstances (such as the uniformity of droplet size in the clouds), one or more of

207-531: Is the site of the Witches' Sabbath on Walpurgis Night . Modern theories of light, first described by Henri Poincaré in 1887, are able to explain the phenomenon of glories through the complex angular momentum (rotation) of the electromagnetic field of a light wave, and do not need quantum theories. A summary of rainbowlike phenomena was provided in Scientific American in 1977, and states: It

230-452: The Brocken spectre , and heiligenschein . Occasionally, around sunset or sunrise , anticrepuscular rays appear to converge toward the antisolar point near the horizon. However, this is an optical illusion caused by perspective; in reality, the "rays" (i.e. bands of shadow) run near-parallel to each other. Also around the antisolar point, the gegenschein is often visible in a moonless night sky away from city lights , arising from

253-474: The U.S. Government Style Manual (2008) , in sections 9.54 and 12.9b, recommended the use of "12 a.m." for midnight and "12 p.m." for noon. However, the previous 29th edition of the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual (2000) , in section 12.9, recommended the opposite. There is no further record documenting this change. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends avoiding confusion altogether by using "11:59 pm" or "12:01 am" and

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276-405: The backscatter of sunlight by interplanetary dust . In astronomy , the full Moon or a planet in opposition lies near the antisolar point. During a total lunar eclipse , the full Moon enters the umbra of Earth's shadow , which the planet casts onto its atmosphere , into space, and toward the antisolar point. The anthelic point is often used as a synonym for the antisolar point, but

299-497: The Dutch astronomer Hendrik van de Hulst suggested that surface waves are involved. He speculated that the brightness of the coloured rings of the glory are caused by two-ray interference between "short" and "long" path surface waves—which are generated by light rays entering the droplets at diametrically opposite points (both rays suffer one internal reflection). A theory by Brazilian physicist Herch Moysés Nussenzveig suggests that

322-508: The Sun is below it, and vice versa. On a sunny day , the antisolar point can be easily found; it is located within the shadow of the observer's head. Like the zenith and nadir , the antisolar point is not fixed in three-dimensional space , but is defined relative to the observer. Each observer has an antisolar point that moves as the observer changes position. The antisolar point forms the geometric center of several optical phenomena , including subhorizon haloes , rainbows , glories ,

345-602: The beginning and ending of each day in civil time throughout the world. As the dividing point between one day and another, midnight defies easy classification as either part of the preceding day or of the following day. Though there is no global unanimity on the issue, most often midnight is considered the start of a new day and is associated with the hour 00:00. Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to use " a.m. " and " p.m. " when referring to noon or midnight. The abbreviation a.m. stands for ante meridiem or before noon , and p.m. stands for post meridiem or after noon . Since noon

368-442: The glory's rings can be visible. The rings are rarely complete, being interrupted by the shadow of the viewer. The angular size of the inner and brightest ring is much smaller than that of a rainbow , about 5° to 20°, depending on the size of the droplets. In the right conditions, a glory and a rainbow can occur simultaneously. "Glories can be seen on mountains and hillsides, from aircraft and in sea fog and even indoors." Like

391-447: The intended date instead of "midnight" or "12:00 am". There are several common approaches to identifying and distinguishing the precise start and end of any given day. Antisolar point The antisolar point is the abstract point on the celestial sphere directly opposite the Sun from an observer's perspective . This means that the antisolar point lies above the horizon when

414-495: The light energy beamed back by a glory originates mostly from classical wave tunneling (synonymous in the paper to the evanescent wave coupling ), which is an interaction between an evanescent light wave traveling along the surface of the drop and the waves inside the drop. C. T. R. Wilson saw a glory while working as a temporary observer at the Ben Nevis weather station. Inspired by the impressive sight, he decided to build

437-407: The parhelic circle itself. Glory (optical phenomenon) A glory is an optical phenomenon , resembling an iconic saint 's halo around the shadow of the observer's head, caused by sunlight or (more rarely) moonlight interacting with the tiny water droplets that comprise mist or clouds . The glory consists of one or more concentric , successively dimmer rings, each of which

460-530: The phenomenon at Mount Emei date back to A.D. 63. The colourful halo always surrounds the observer's own shadow, and thus was often taken to show the observer's personal enlightenment (associated with Buddha or divinity). Stylized glories appear occasionally in Western heraldry . Two glories appear on the Great Seal of the United States : A glory breaking through clouds surrounding a cluster of 13 stars on

483-478: The plane is flying sufficiently low for its shadow to be visible on the clouds, the glory always surrounds it. This is sometimes called The Glory of the Pilot . In 2024 astronomers suggested that the existence of glory might explain certain observations of the exoplanet WASP-76b . If this interpretation could be confirmed, it would become the first extrasolar glory-like phenomenon to be discovered. When viewed from

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506-402: The two should be differentiated. While the antisolar point is directly opposite the sun, always below the horizon when the sun is up, the anthelic point is opposite but at the same elevation as the sun, and is therefore located on the parhelic circle . There are several halo phenomena that are centered on or converge on the anthelic point, such as the anthelion , Wegener arcs, Tricker arcs and

529-450: Was halfway between dusk and dawn (i.e., solar midnight), varying according to the seasons . In some Slavic languages , "midnight" has an additional geographic association with " north " (as " noon " does with " south "). Modern Polish , Belarusian , Ukrainian , and Serbian languages preserve this association with their words for "midnight" or "half-night" ( północ , поўнач , північ , пoнoħ ) also meaning "north". Midnight marks

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