Did anyone else in the eastern US see the deep aqua blue sky at twilight?

[1srelluc]

I was out filling the bird feeder and noticed it. The color was on the extreme dark side of the gradient with nothing else mixed in......I've never seen the like in the Shenandoah Valley before.

 

[Oddball]

I was out filling the bird feeder and noticed it. The color was on the extreme dark side of the gradient with nothing else mixed in......I've never seen the like in the Shenandoah Valley before.

Usually a sky color I only see at higher altitudes.

 

[1srelluc]

Usually a sky color I only see at higher altitudes.

LOL....The sky is falling!

 

[MarathonMike]

It's purty, are u sure that isn't a paint swatch?

 

[1srelluc]

What was weird was that it was horizon to horizon in all directions.

 

[toobfreak]

I was out filling the bird feeder and noticed it. The color was on the extreme dark side of the gradient with nothing else mixed in......I've never seen the like in the Shenandoah Valley before.

Might be explained by the time of year, the fact that the Sun is still near the winter solstice (most southerly position) along the plane of the ecliptic combined with unusually dry air. The former increases blue scatter in the sky by moving most of it farther from the Sun, while the latter reduces light scattering further.

 

[1srelluc]

Might be explained by the time of year, the fact that the Sun is still near the winter solstice (most southerly position) along the plane of the ecliptic combined with unusually dry air. The former increases blue scatter in the sky by moving most of it farther from the Sun, while the latter reduces light scattering further.

It was a bit of thin cloud at sundown.

 

[toobfreak]

It was a bit of thin cloud at sundown.

Conversely, you will often see your reddest sunsets near the Spring Equinox for all of the same reasons (Sun's positioning).

Here is a particularly red sunset I took years ago around that time.

 

[1srelluc]

Conversely, you will often see your reddest sunsets near the Spring Equinox for all of the same reasons (Sun's positioning).

Here is a particularly red sunset I took years ago around that time.


View attachment 885438

Still does not explain the solid blue.....you would think that there would have been at least some difference off to the west.

 

[toobfreak]

Still does not explain the solid blue.....you would think that there would have been at least some difference off to the west.

No, I think it does. I'm actually pretty versed in topics of light, color and astronomy. What you saw is not an unknown observation. Now, if you REALLY want to see something cool, try looking at the sunlight at night glinting off the leftover dust in the solar system reflected towards the earth!

 

[GLASNOST]

I was out filling the bird feeder and noticed it. The color was on the extreme dark side of the gradient with nothing else mixed in......I've never seen the like in the Shenandoah Valley before.

I saw it only 12 seconds after you took that photo:

 

[1srelluc]

No, I think it does. I'm actually pretty versed in topics of light, color and astronomy. What you saw is not an unknown observation. Now, if you REALLY want to see something cool, try looking at the sunlight at night glinting off the leftover dust in the solar system reflected towards the earth!

I'm not saying it's "unknown"....It could have happened 1000 times before but I was not out to observe it. Just odd that I've never seen it before is all.

 

[fncceo]

I was out filling the bird feeder and noticed it. The color was on the extreme dark side of the gradient with nothing else mixed in......I've never seen the like in the Shenandoah Valley before.

They're trying to destroy the purity of your essence...

 

[1srelluc]

They're trying to destroy the purity of your essence...

View attachment 885559

My Precious Bodily Fluids are just fine.

 

[fncceo]

Conversely, you will often see your reddest sunsets near the Spring Equinox for all of the same reasons (Sun's positioning).

Here is a particularly red sunset I took years ago around that time.


View attachment 885438

As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!

 

[toobfreak]

I'm not saying it's "unknown"....It could have happened 1000 times before but I was not out to observe it. Just odd that I've never seen it before is all.

As an experienced observer and astronomer, I can tell you that all kinds of neat, bizarre and unexpected things happen during the night. Sadly, the average person is barely aware of the night sky even when out at night unless the Moon happens to be full and low. When I was young, I tried to point out the quarter moon brightly light high overhead in a big blue sky one afternoon to a neighbor and could not even get him to look up because he thought it absurd that you could see the moon in daylight. He finally did and was shocked.

Another time, neighbors came out to get in their car at dusk and I happened to have a big telescope set up in my front yard across from their driveway. Jupiter was just barely visible in the sky if you knew right where to look for it but was otherwise lost in the bright blue sky. I invited them over to see Jupiter and its galilean moons in the eyepiece, a beautiful sight in sharp detail as the seeing was particularly stable, but I had to finally plead with them, the husband was in disbelief anything could be seen like that in what was still pretty much broad daylight. They were astounded.

Another time, I had been at the eyepiece for quite a while late at night and I turned towards the house for just 10 seconds to exchange for a different eyepiece. I had my eyepiece case under the edge of my patio roof. In the few seconds I was turned away, suddenly the entire sky lit up so bright it cast shadows on the ground! I knew what it was--- it had to be a bolide--- a particularly large meteor that usually involves a bright, smoking tail, sometimes even with colors like green and such, but as fast as I could react to turn around to catch it, it had already passed.

There are amazing sights of weather formations, clouds, and colors if you catch them at just the right time under just the right conditions, including mammatocumulous, crepuscular rays, noctilucent lights, ice halos, sun dogs, and many other things. Colors from deep magenta to deep indigo are possible. Here is a rainbow I caught years ago after a late afternoon storm: