Sunday, June 3, 2012

'Belt of Venus'


Credit: http://earthsky.org/tonight


I wish the sky remains clear this evening so I could catch the glimpse of 'Venus's Girdle' or also known as 'Belt of Venus'!

I have previously came across the term of 'belt of venus'  on 24th Oct 2010, while lingering around the topic of twilight, which started from learning my way through the names of clouds.. this is the caption from Mr.Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_of_Venus)

"It was said in that article that the Belt of Venus or Venus's Girdle is the name for an atmospheric phenomenon seen shortly after sunset or shortly before sunrise. It is observed as very nearly, surrounded by a pinkish glow or anti-twilight arch that extends roughly 10°–20° above the horizon. Often, the glow is separated from the horizon by a dark layer, called 'the shadow of earth'. The arch's light rose (pink) color is due to back-scattering of reddened light from the rising or setting sun. When the sky is clear, the Earth's shadow is visible in the opposite half of the sky to the sunset or sunrise, and is seen right above the horizon as a dark blue band. A related phenomenon is the "Belt of Venus" or "anti-twilight arch", a pink band that is visible above the dark blue of the Earth's shadow, in the same part of the sky."