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I am a middle school teacher from India(UTC+5:30). On August 21, 2017 morning at (17.385044, 78.486671) we observed an unusually early sunrise. It felt like its 7'O clock in the morning at 5:45 AM. And we had an unusually bright day. I'm sure it has to do something with the total solar eclipse but I don't exactly know what it is.

My students are persistently asking me the reason for this early sunrise but I don't have enough knowledge of astronomy to answer them. Can someone kindly answer why we observed this phenomenon?

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, but "it felt like" is no an objective measurement for sunrise. You must have sun up/down time tables for your area and it will show you that there was nothing special today. The next best guess of what was happening (if it was not just confirmation bias) is: weather. Look at the actual weather data and forecasts for the past and next few days. $\endgroup$
    – user1569
    Aug 22, 2017 at 12:33
  • $\begingroup$ I completely agree with you that it isn't an objective measurement. But the sun was just up in the sky by 5.45+ which isn't the case everyday because its my daily routine to attend class at 6.00 AM. But if you think there is nothing special about total solar ecliplse, then I'll surely lookup on weather data and sun up/down tables. $\endgroup$
    – claws
    Aug 22, 2017 at 13:09
  • $\begingroup$ No, your "I'm sure...." is 100% wrong. Please don't set your students off on a non-scientific track. $\endgroup$
    – Carl Witthoft
    Aug 22, 2017 at 15:08
  • $\begingroup$ @CarlWitthoft: No. I didn't and I won't ever set them on a non-scientific track. Yeah even I think "I'm sure..." is 100% wrong in the light of the evidence of sunrise/set times at my location posted in his answer by Dr. Chuck. $\endgroup$
    – claws
    Aug 23, 2017 at 14:26

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If your sunrise had been earlier than expected, it would have been the same around the world, and would have been noticed very widely.

Here is a chart showing times of sunrise/set at your location.

enter image description here

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I doubt the eclipse had anything to do.

Take into consideration that a solar eclipse is just the shadow of the moon projected over the globe when the sun is in opposition to the earth taking the moon as the reference frame.

It can be a psychological effect given your student's expectations of observing some kind of astronomical event. It could also be that the meteorological conditions provided a particularly clear sky that day. Take also into account that this was a Monday. Probably on Mondays there is less pollution given that during the weekend there where less people commuting, which would mean clearer skies and therefore the feeling of brightness.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well its not just the students, even I made this observation. In fact it was only me who first talked about it with the students. Everyday my class begins at 6.00 AM so I am used to how everyday 5.30-6:00 looks like. To be very honest, its only after observing this phenomenon I googled to for the reason and then discovered that on that day there is a total solar eclipse. So I thought they must be connected. $\endgroup$
    – claws
    Aug 22, 2017 at 13:06

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