Moon & Venus in Unusual Volcanic Sunset.
On Sunday 23rd April the 13% illuminated Waxing Crescent Moon in conjunction with Venus was observed descending in a most unusual coloured volcanic sunset. This failed to produce the bright red orange and yellow twilight arch normally associated with more concentrated lower level stratospheric volcanic aerosols during the period shortly after sundown but instead developed a diffuse display of pink, lilac purple and magenta colour which extended high into the fading twilight sky and provided a persistent spectacular coloured backdrop to the Moon-Venus conjunction as it descended towards the horizon. It is believed that this was the result of the presence of more dilute high level stratospheric aerosols which were reflecting light for much later and longer than normal in a volcanic sunset. The montage contains images taken between 5.52 and 6.16 pm.

Tripod-mounted Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 cameras in sunset and manual exposure modes.

Compilation of montage consisting of two full-frame images and two four image mosaics.