Young Writers Society

I live in the 'burbs, so the night sky around my house gets navy blue at best. Today when my sister was editing my story, she challenged my description that the night sky in my story was "dark purple." The setting is about an hour before dawn, when the sky isn't quite black.

Truth be told, I've never witnessed an hour-before-dawn-night-sky without a bunch of city lights all over the place! Can those who live out in the country (or have visited places and woken up before dawn) help me out? Is the sky black? Blue? Gray? Purple? I'm lost.

Thanks in advance,
Shafter

I'd say it's really, really dark blue, not quite black. Lighter blue around the edges of the moon.

Also, it's crisper away from the city, and the edges of stars and things are more defined.

That's just from my personal experience. I hope it helped.

Yeah, up here in Alaska I'd call it a really deep indigo, and like Jenna said, the stars and moon are more brilliant than in big cities, where smog and city lights conflict with them.

I only ever see one star at night, the sky gets greyish and sometimes a little orangy.

The night sky is dark blue.But not black.

Thanks, everyone! I have witnessed a midnight sky in the country, and just stood there gaping at the stars, all those gorgeous stars... while my country cousin acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. Ha, I'm such a city kid.

It would depend on the time of day actually, meaning if the sun was setting, there's deep oranges, blues, reds, and purples.

But, if we're talking about the sky when the sun is fully set, and has vanished, in my neck of the woods, the colours are different. (It also depends on the time of year, not to confuse Shaftner). In the summer, yes, when the sun is fully set, the sky is a deep, navy blue but in the winter months, the sky is pitch black. It's as if the colour blue or purple went on vacation!

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I've lived in the country for the majority of my life, but I also live in a different state, obviousaly. Where I reside is Northern Vermont, and I'm very close to Quebec, Canada, I'm not sure if the farther north you are, if it effects the colours in the sky when the sun is beginning to set.

But I do know the colours are definately different, 'pending on the season. In the summer months especially, the colours are more vibrant, and when the sun is fully gone, all I see is a navy blue for many hours, and then it turns pitch black around 10 EST.

Now, it's pitch black at 5, and as I said, the blues and purples are totally gone right now.

The US is weird.

I think the color of the sky depends on where you are, like in Alaska in (either Summer or winter) that the nights are as bright as day. Generally the night sky is just a dark blue color.

Where I've seen it, in Portugal, its was a deep blue, almost black but with the Milky Way clearly visible as fine glitter and thousands of stars standing out against the dark, each with individual definition. Take away your peripheral vision and you wouldn't know you were on Earth.

I've got some pics of our sunset if you still need 'em

You've never seen the night sky?
I find that indescribably sad...
An hour before dawn...The sky is absolutely pitch-black, tiny pinpoints of white light are the stars. The moon...that depends. A full moon, on a clear night, gives a slight, navy-blue aura. On cloudy nights, the clouds around the moon are translucent, the light just barely comes through.
The sky looks like a dome, stratching for miles and miles (if you're on flat land), and if you can see the horizon, there is sometimes just a hint of yellow-orange light, highlighting what seems to be the end of the earth.

If there are no lights around, it's black. What makes it seem blue is moonlight, but when there's barely any moon, it's definitely black.

The darkness of night was like a shadowing veil, only flecks of ivory white sone off in the skies above.


oooh...i like that one......WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

It depends on the setting. As is obvious, if it's in a large town/city, it'll show a lighter navy blue, if it's in the country, more a black.

At least where I live, it also depends on the phase of the moon. The full moon will cast a pale light that illuminates nearly everything. You really don't need any extra hand held light when this is the case. When the moon is new, however, the sky is nearly black, speckled with dots of light, and it is very difficult to see very far ahead of you. (I live in the boonies can you tell?)

Hope this is helpful!!

If there's lots of lights, then it's difficult to see the stars properally.
And, really, the sky can be any colour at night, from dark blue, to purple to grey to dark maroon!

Oh, and if the moon is full, then I always find that it seems to completely fill the sky; it's like the main point up there. If there's a ring around the moon, then it makes the surrounding sky look all milky-white and misty, like the palest dark blue overlaid with almost transparent silver-white.

Hope this helps.

-ST