Twilight Zone

Twilight is the time before sunrise or after sunset when sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere and the surface of the Earth is between light and dark. more...

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The collateral adjective of "twilight" is crepuscular (for daylight it is "diurnal" and for night, "nocturnal"). The term is most frequently encountered when applied to certain species of insects and mammals that are most active during that time.

Definitions

The following guidelines have been established and widely accepted. (For these definitions, an ideal horizon 90° from the zenith is used. The altitudes of the sun below the horizon are "true geometric" altitudes, that is, refraction by the atmosphere and other small factors influencing the observed position of the Sun are not to be accounted for.)

Civil twilight

This begins in the morning when the center of the Sun is less than 6° below the horizon (the point of civil dawn), and ends at sunrise. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the center of the Sun is more than 6° below the horizon (the point of civil dusk).
The brightest stars appear during civil twilight, as well as planets, such as Venus which is known as the 'morning star' and/or 'evening star'. During this period there is enough light from the Sun so that artificial sources of light are not needed to carry on outdoor activities. This concept is sometimes enshrined in laws, like when drivers of automobiles must turn on their headlights, or if the crime of burglary is to be treated as night-time burglary, or in the daytime, with the latter determination resulting in a lesser penalty —although a fixed period of time (most commonly 30 minutes after sunset or before sunrise) will form the basis for the application of these statutes, rather than how many degrees the Sun is below the horizon. Civil twilight can also be described as the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; at the beginning of morning civil twilight, or end of evening civil twilight, the horizon is clearly defined and the brightest stars are visible under good atmospheric conditions in the absence of moonlight or other illumination.

Nautical twilight

This is defined as the time when the center of the Sun is more than 6° below the horizon but less than 12°.

At this time, sailors can take reliable star sights of well known stars, using a visible horizon for reference. The end of this period in the evening, or its beginning in the morning, is also the time at which traces of illumination near the sunset or sunrise point of the horizon are very difficult if not impossible to discern (this often being referred to as "first light" before civil dawn and "nightfall" after civil dusk). At the beginning of nautical twilight in the morning (nautical dawn), or at the end of nautical twilight in the evening (nautical dusk), under good atmospheric conditions and in the absence of other illumination, general outlines of ground objects may be distinguishable, but detailed outdoor operations are not possible, and the horizon is indistinct. Nautical twilight has military considerations as well. The initialisms BMNT (begin morning nautical twilight) and EENT (end evening nautical twilight) are used and considered when planning military operations. A military unit may treat BMNT and EENT with heightened security (i.e. a process called "stand to" in which everyone pulls security). This is partially due to tactics dating back to the French and Indian War, when warriors on both sides would use BMNT and EENT to launch attacks.

Read more at Wikipedia.org