We are away camping at the moment at Lennox Heads in NSW and this was the view of the full moon rising.
It was just so gorgeous like a golden orb hanging in a deep purple sky.  

We are experiencing some incredible volcanic coloured skies that are just so pretty :-)
​
Looking to the western sky you can see the constellation of Orion going down and Venus to the lower right again in that beautiful dusty coloured sky. Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera a Tamron 18-400mm lens.

~ Coloured Sky ~
 
I got a call from my astro friend Tara Williams from Pottsville in NSW to go look outside and look at the sky…Oh Wow, this is what I saw the whole sky was this stunning purple and pink colour, thank you Tara it was awesome!
 
You can also see the constellation of Orion going down in the western sky with the brilliant planet Venus in the lower right of the picture.
 
The colour is produced by fine particles high up in the atmosphere from the Hunga-Tonga eruption that happened back in January 2022. It’s very unpredictable as it comes and goes and can only be seen for about 20 minutes before sunrise or 20 minutes after sunset.
 
Image taken with a Canon Power Shot G7X Mark 11 camera on manual focus that was hand held, with an exposure of 1second and ISO200 :-)

​We were on our flight from Brisbane to Perth to view the solar eclipse at Exmouth when I looked over toward the window and saw this beautiful sunset.
 
I asked the passenger if I could please take some images and this is what I got. I took many images to make sure it wasn’t an artefact with the window or Sun reflections but yes; it’s there in every image so it’s real. Just one of those strange optical illusions that you get when you’re flying high up in the sky.

​I think it may be called a letterbox sunset :-)
 
Isn't flight just amazing, in just over five hours you can go from Brisbane to Perth with a flying distance of 3600km right across Australia from east to west…incredible!

​I drove up to Mt Tamborine to try and capture an image of Mercury low on the western horizon just after sunset and… Oh Wow, what a wonderful sight it was to see with all the stunning colours of sunset and the fine volcanic particles producing these incredible pink crepuscular rays right across the horizon.
 
As it got darker, I also captured Venus close to the Pleiades star cluster; it was such an awesome evening :-)
 
My images were taken on the 11th April 2023 with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod.

This was the beautiful sky that I saw before sunrise, I think the colours are more subdued than the images that I posted on my website and also Spaceweather.com on the morning of the 6th April…but you can still see the result of those volcanic aerosols in the atmosphere :-)
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens set at 18mm, the exposure time was 1/125th second and ISO200 with the camera on a tripod.

Over the last two evenings we’ve had the most amazing colours in our twilight sky with the colours of deep purple and magenta pink.
 
To take the first image on the 8th April I had to stop the car and go into the middle of the round-about to get a photo of Venus’s conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster. I rested the camera on top of the road sign to steady it and ‘Wow’ I got my picture. The things we do to capture a photo!
 
The next two images were taken last night (9th April) while we were having a family BBQ; I noticed a strange pink colour in the eastern sky at 6.15pm? It was all around the sky and realized it must be a phenomenon called dusting! I quickly ran inside to grab my camera, rested it on the pool fence to took some pictures,
​you can see the beautiful soft pink colour reflected on the water.

The reason for these stunning colours is because of those fine volcanic aerosols from the Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption that happen over a year ago, Tara Williams in NSW also captured this pretty colour in the sky and called it her pink Easter Egg sky.
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=194969
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=194970
 
I have no idea why it’s so prevalent at the moment, could it be that our atmosphere has been bombarded with so many solar particles of late? Whatever is causing the effect it looks very pretty. From experience it wont last for very long because it seems to come and go?
 
My Images were taken with a Canon Power Shot GX7 Mark 11 camera on manual focus.

What was it really like…just breathtaking!
 
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.

~ Volcanic Sunset cruising past the volcanic basalt plugs of the Glass House Mountains 5th March 2023 ~
 
On Sunday the 5th March 2023 at 4pm we left the port of Brisbane on the cruise ship Carnival Luminosa and by 6.30pm we were cruising past the magnificent north QLD coastline where can see the many volcanic mountains of the Glass House Mountains.
 
It was so fitting to see the volcanic coloured sunset with these ancient craggy volcanic remnants in the foreground that formed from volcanic activity over 25 million years ago. Captain Cook named these mountains when he explored the eastern coast of Australia in 1770, the peaks reminded him of glass kilns in his native Yorkshire.
 
Some of the mountain pecks on show that I've named in my photo are Mount Beerwah, Mount Coonowrin (Crookneck), Mount Ngungun, Mount Tibberoowuccum and Mount Tibrogargan.

To find out more about this incredible area go to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_House_Mountains
 
On our cruise we were lucky enough to have a balcony cabin, the ship was going quite fast but the sea was calm so I was very lucky to be able to capture these beautiful sunset images :-)

​As an added bonus as it good darker, Jupiter and Venus made an appearance with some pink crepuscular rays from the volcanic dust.
 
I’ve made up a slideshow below to show all the different colours the sky went through from 6.30pm until 6.50pm.
 
All images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens that was on a tripod
from the balcony of the ship.

It was very exciting last night, finally the clouds cleared enough and I got my first chance to see the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the western sky.
 
My astro friend Tara Williams in NSW (who contributes to Spaceweather.com) was also getting her first views of the event and we exchanged many texts while capturing our images :-)
 
That unusual colour is still in the sky and it’s from the fine aerosol particles high up in our Earth’s atmosphere from the Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption that happened back in January 2022.
​It seems to come and go in the sky for some reason?
 
Another contributor on Spaceweather.com is Peter Lowenstein from Mutare in Zimbabwe who has taken an incredible number of images of this atmospheric event and I congratulate him on his dedication in recording this remarkable phenomenon…I just wish our skies here in Australia were as clear!
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens at 200mm at 7.10pm (AEST) exposure time was 1.6 seconds and ISO 400.
 
To view all of Peter’s stunning images please got to:
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=192439
His YouTube video is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXrrMkXVzFA&feature=youtu.be

~ Video taken with Canon 70D in video mode ~

After taking those lovely pictures of Venus & Jupiter earlier in the western sky at sunset, I waited until it got darker to try and find and capture that elusive Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 
 
This Comet has been putting on quite a show in the northern hemisphere as it headed toward the Sun, but now it’s heading back out of the Solar System and becoming fainter.
 
Observers here in the southern hemisphere are only just seeing it, but not at its best and where I am here at home with all this cloud and urban light, it’s impossible to even find with the naked eye in the northern sky.
 
So using the star chart App called Stellarium and aimed my camera and lens up near Mars in the constellation of Taurus, I took some long exposure images and got it in between the clouds!
 
It was ever so faint but you can see make it out above Mars; I’ve also captured the two star cluster in Taurus, Hyades and Pleiades. It’s not the best picture by a long shot… but at least I captured it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and 18-400mm lens, the Comet images were between 6 and 10 second exposures with ISO1600 & 2500.