Night time is a confusing beast, because there are so many different things to consider when you're talking about it. Let's break down three things that relate to night time: Lights, Logging, and Passenger Currency.
Before we start hammering the specific usage of each 'thing,' let's get a working definition of night time.
If you take a look at the current regulations, 14 CFR Part 1.1 defines 'night' the following way: Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time. Now you could go into all different types of specifics regarding what makes night night, but that definition is pretty cut and dry.
Let's consider the unique situations in which lights are concerned: Position lights - a red one in the left wing, a green one in the right wing, and a white one in the tail, all that steady burn, are required to be operated during the period from sunset to sunrise. Notice how the definition of night doesn't mention anything about sunset or sunrise. So confusion point one.
Consider logging night time: 61.51 says you must enter the conditions of flight in a log as night or day. So anytime you meet the definition of night, you can log that time as night.
Here's where many pilots get confused. Recent flight experience. 61.57 (b) night takeoff and landing experience, stipulates that if you want to act as Pilot in Command of an aircraft carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, you must have 3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop within the preceding 90 days during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise. Again, note that nowhere in that description is the word night mentioned, other than the title of that paragraph of the reg. And remember, you only have to have this currency if you want to act as PIC carrying passengers.
So it basically boils down to this order: Sunset (dark), night (darker), 1 hour after sunset (darkest) TO 1 hour before sunrise (bright), day (brighter), sunrise (brightest). To dispel a few misunderstandings, you can carry passengers up to 59 minutes after sunset and log night time if you do not have the required night takeoff and landing experience. But once that magical 1 hour mark after sunset hits, you must have those night takeoffs and landings if you want to carry passengers as PIC.
It usually boils down to something like this when you take a look at the times:
Sunset: 2007 local
Civil Evening Twilight: 2034
One hour after sunset: 2107
Civil twilight changes with the time of year but usually is between 15 and 30 minutes after sunset. The one hour after or before is pretty self explanatory.
So make sure if you're out meeting your night takeoff and landing experience requirements to carry passengers, the time you do it must begin at least 1 hour after sunset and no later than 1 hour before sunrise.
