"pinkish border to Earth's shadow"

The Belt of Venus

Watching the September sunsets from the living/dining area at home has afforded me the fleeting opportunity to watch the summer turn to fall. As the earth is revolving around the sun, the degree of the sunset seems to be speeding up. The position of the sunset both appears speeding southwest from west as the daylight fades minute by minute, and daily, now intersecting the skyscrapers of San Francisco.

There is nothing like the practice of observation, unless it is also capturing that observation visually, in my case with watercolors. In addition to the spectacular twilight color over the San Francisco bay area, there's the added bonus of purple light due to volcanic particles in the upper atmosphere.

I like doing some research to understand what I am seeing. In the case of twilight, using an app on my phone gave me a clear time 'window' to be ready to paint. Each night a little bit earlier than the night before.

I painted the colors I saw, the bands separating the colors are the challenge, with watercolor either running into the neighboring color creating a beautiful new color, but not what I was seeing out the window. A hairdryer to dry the wet paper was of help. The best is that band of lighter hue between the complimentary color on the horizon in contrast to the sky above!

And all the color changes as the quick minutes pass, not to unlike the speed needed to capture gesture drawing a 10 minute series of 2 minute life figure drawing poses! As the light is getting dimmer in the room, no less.

While out the back window another astronomical phenomenon is playing out on the opposite horizon. The shadow cast by the setting sun on the rounded surface of the earth is creating a shadow in the lower atmosphere near the horizon. If you are up before sunrise you'll catch this shadow at the opposite horizon. I have learned the opposite of twilight is anti-twilight, that shadow that is called THE BELT OF VENUS.

So, the sunset is about 100 miles in one direction, but the results create magic 100 miles behind you too! This all helps create a unique space for me on this planet.