Black Sea Anticrepuscular Rays

March 24, 2008

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Provided and copyright by: Alexandru Tudorica, Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM)
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster, Alexandru Tudorica

The rose colored crepuscular rays pictured above were photographed in the early evening hours of April 23, 2006 near Constanta, Romania, on the Black Sea. As the Sun sets behind the camera, lanes of sunlight, interspersed with dust or cloud shadows, are projected all the way across the sky. The Sun's lingering rays create the alluring color of the eastern sky as they tint the rising shadow of the Earth, known as the Belt of Venus.