Volcanic Sunset followed by Jupiter, Gemini & Orion Stars and Venus descending.

In the evening on Tuesday 28th April, almost clear skies provided a good view of a bright colorful Volcanic Sunset Twilight Arch developing and fading to the WNW of Mutare. This was followed by a fainter retreating late volcanic sunset twilight arch in the vicinity of which Jupiter, Gemini & Orion Stars and Jupiter were visible between 6.16 and 6.24 pm. It should be noted that late volcanic sunset twilight arches, which are generated by high-level stratospheric aerosols, are not clearly visible to the naked eye but can be captured in lengthy high sensitivity (ISO) photographic time exposures. Four of these have been processed to increase the brightness of the celestial objects and are presented in the lower portion of the accompanying 8 image montage. Once again it is worth emphasizing how amazing it is that four-and-a-quarter years after the massive eruption of the Hunga-Tonga volcano in the Southern Pacific Ocean in mid-January 2022, there are sometimes still sufficient volcanic aerosols present in the stratosphere above Mutare to produce spectacular post-sunset displays which can appear from twenty minutes to one hour after the sun has set below the local horizon.

Tripod-mounted Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 in sunset and manual exposure modes.

Compilation of 8 image montage of four taken between 5.38 and 5.51 pm and four between 5.55 and 6.10 pm.