I went out to photograph sunset tonight and put my pics together into a little animation. I did not photograph continuously so you will notice some jumps as I paused a little bit (I tried to pause when there was not likely to be much action, but I know I missed a couple of potentially interesting moments...the buffer in my camera will fill up if I take too many in a row!)
It was a nice sunset with multiple green flashes as different parts of the Sun disappear behind the jagged mountain. Look closely and you can even see some rare blue flashes and at least once I see some even more rare purple. The blue and purple get scattered more by Earth's atmosphere than green light so it is harder to catch them. Of course we get some great conditions with low humidity and pollution here so you can occasionally catch them. I have never seen them naked eye, only in my pics.
If the weather holds tomorrow night, I am planning on trying to get pics from Windy Point up on the Catalina Highway. I need to get up there more often since the extra elevation can give some interesting effects...stay tuned!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
