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Sunrise, also called sunup in some American English dialects, is the time at which the first part of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the (variously defined) point at which the sky begins to lighten, some time before the sun itself appears.

Because the bending of sunlight causes the sun to be seen after it has dropped below the horizon, both sunrise and sunset are daily optical illusions.

The apparent westward revolution of Sun around the earth after rising out of the horizon is due to the earth's eastward rotation. This illusion is so convincing that most cultures had mythologies and religions built around the geocentric model. This same effect can be seen with near-polar satellites as well.

As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the Sun, and not the center; this slightly increase the duration of "day" relative to "night".

The color of the sky at sunrise is explained by the phenomenon of Rayleigh scattering.

Sunsight is a term, according to Allegra Fuller Snyder, collectively coined by Buckminster Fuller's family and used to express the first sighting of the sun in the morning. As the sun actually neither rises nor sets, the terms "sunrise" and "sunset" were anathema to Fuller. The term used to replace " sunset" is sunclipse.

1 Other meanings

Sunrise can also refer to:

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130px Sinai sunrise



AstronomyAstronomy which etymologically means " law of the stars," (from Greek: + nomos) is a science involving the observation and explanation of events occurring outside Earth and its atmosphere. It studies the origins, evolution, physical and chemical propertie Natural phenomena



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