Belt of Venus

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Venus belt , also Venus band or counter- twilight arch , is the name for an appearance of atmospheric optics during twilight. It is a mostly pink to orange colored band that runs parallel to the opposite horizon shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset at a height of 10 ° –20 °.

The belt of Venus begins to color above the horizon above the ascending arc of the Earth's shadow ; the central gray triangle is the shadow of the Teide .
Belt of Venus seen from the port of Lüderitz in Namibia (2017)

In the best case, the counter-twilight arch can run in a semicircle over a horizontal angular range of 180 degrees and is separated from the horizon by a dark blue-gray arch, the earth shadow arch. With a view of the location of the opposite point of the sun and with a human field of vision , a band-shaped reddish coloration of the sky can be perceived all around. The intensity of this predominantly orange-reddish colored Venus belt mostly reaches a maximum near the sun's counterpoint during the upper counter-twilight .

The reference to the name of the planet Venus is derived from the visibility of this lower planet , which appears as the brightest star after the moon during twilight as an evening star or morning star in the sky, but not above the opposite horizon. More precisely, this twilight phase is also known as early civil twilight .

The name of the apparition alludes to an attribute of the ancient goddess Aphrodite , equated with the Roman Venus , namely her magical belt, actually a band girded under the breast ( Latin called cestus , ancient Greek also στρόφιον stróphion ).

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Commons : Belt of Venus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also