Moon, Spica, Venus and Porrima in Volcanic Sunset

On Friday 6th September, the 10% illuminated Waxing Crescent Moon appeared high in the sky to the west of Mutare and was observed descending towards the bright colours of another emerging volcanic sunset twilight arch (3 images at top of composite) As the volcanic sunset twilight arch began to fade, Venus became visible a considerable distance below the Moon with the Virgo star Spica shining bright above. As darkness approached Porrima appeared close to Venus and all four objects were observed descending towards the summit of Murahwa Mountain (panoramic view below). The descent was captured in a series of 133 consecutive 4 second exposures taken between 6.24 and 6.56 pm which have been used to produce another time-lapse animation. This will be presented later as a Disqus comment.

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

Compilation of 4 image composite consisting of 3 distant views taken between 5.43 and 5.47 pm (above) and a panoramic view taken at 6.22 pm (below).