I could not believe my eyes when I looked outside and seen this stunning view right across the eastern horizon just before dawn…I’ve been observing these beautiful volcanic coloured sunrises and sunsets that are now back in our sky for the past month with my friend from NSW Tara Williams :-)
I see also that Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe and Helio C Vital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have both posted images to Spaceweather.com and are observing this sky phenomenon as well.
The different colours are caused by the fine volcanic particles being lit up and refracted by sunlight high up in the Earths stratosphere and can produce colours from anywhere from deep purple to soft pinks, bright yellows to deep burnt orange, my photo here has all these stunning colours in the one shot.
These fine aerosols are from the dynamic underwater volcano called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano that erupted in the South Pacific Island of Tonga back in January 2022. Which is why Peter, Tara, Helio and myself are seeing them here in the Southern Hemisphere where we all live on planet Earth.
My image was taken with a Canon Power Shot G7x Mark 11 camera with a 1/50th second exposure and ISO 125 that was hand held.