South Pacific Sunsets

While collectively called the South Pacific, these islands are divided into three regions: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, each with its cultural traditions, language variations, and culinary specialties.

A lover of sunsets is called an 'opacarophile'. 'opacare' which is Latin for dusk or sunset, and 'phile' which is Greek for love.  Sunset can be defined as the moment when the top of the sun's disk has passed the horizon.

As with twilight, there is civil dusk, nautical dusk, and astronomical dusk, occurring at the exact moment when the center of the sun's disk is at 6°, 12°, and 18° below the horizon, respectively.

The rising sun cast a rosy hue across the morning sky. Golden fingers of sunlight lit up the scene. The just-risen sun shone softly on the city streets, bringing with it a flurry of early-morning activity.