The Belt of Venus

I’ve always had a affinity for early morning. It’s quiet and serene, and I seem to be in the best mood of the day during the morning twilight. Part of this is the beauty of the sky transitioning from night to day in relatively quick phases that produce all kinds of cool phenomena. One of those phenomena is called, The Belt of Venus.

Looking west during sunrise

‘The belt’ is a pinkish ring that’s also called the antisolar arch. It surrounds the horizon from the outer points of the rising or setting sun and is most visible directly opposite of the sun just after it sets or just before it rises with little or no clouds. The pink color of the belt is the reflection of the setting or rising sun on the other side of the horizon. And the reason sunsets and sunrises are more red than blue is because the sun’s light is farther away during twilight, which makes the light more reddened with longer wavelengths because it has to pass through more layers of atmosphere.

Looking east during sunset

The dark part underneath the pink belt is called the antisolar wedge. This is the actual shadow of the Earth reflected back onto the atmosphere.

In my opinion, The Belt of Venus has always been underrated when compared to the rising or setting sun. It’s all part of the same phenomena, but knowing why the sky turns colorful will surely impress any date. So lets all give the Belt of Venus its long overdue viewing and knowing and go out and see it!

Planetary Conjunction 12/1/08 with the Moon & clouds

For this most recent planetary conjunction I took my camera out to the ole backyard to photograph this upside down sourpuss face. I inverted the images so it looks like a lopsided frown. On both pictures, Venus is the brighter top most 'eye' while Jupiter is the dimmer planet, and the crescent Moon is sporting some nice earthshine. The first pic is kinda grainy because I used a really high ISO (1600) to offset the long shutter time that is clearly visible in the second pic, which is blurry due to the frosty wind and the subtle rotation of the earth - makes it look like a long sourpuss face. Even though I was standing in snow and dogshit, I had a broad smile as I watched the second (Moon), third (Venus), and forth (Jupiter) brightest objects in the sky get together.