photo #4654039

At dawn over the Eastern Ghats mountain range of Andhra Pradesh, India, Dr. Ashok Kolluru admired two atmospheric effects that are associated with mornings and evenings. The first, known as the Belt of Venus, is the broad band of colour above the horizon when looking in the part of the sky opposite from the rising Sun. On the morning Ashok viewed it, the Belt of Venus looked orange, but it often has a much pinker hue. The Belt of Venus wraps around more than 180 degrees of the sky and starts to appear well before the Sun actually rises. Its colours are formed by the backscattering of reddened sunlight by the atmosphere’s gases and particles.The effect’s unusual name has nothing to do with the planet Venus – which never, as it happens, appears within the belt – but is a reference to the magical golden girdle that belonged to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, known by the Romans as Venus. The second feature Ashok spotted is the Earth’s shadow. This is the band of dark sky just beneath the Belt of Venus extending down to the horizon line itself. The Earth’s shadow is the part of the sky at dawn (or dusk) where the sunlight has yet to shine because the body of the Earth is still in the way. In the east, behind Ashok’s back, the Sun will soon start to peek over the horizon. To the west, the Belt of Venus will lower to the ground and fade and the Earth’s shadow will sink without trace