Cirrus sunset

Not too many possible painting days for sunsets left in 2011; soon it will be dark when I leave work. As it is, this sunset was available only from the car last night at 5:15 pm on my drive home. Facing west, the cirrus clouds had shadows on the top of the cloud since the sun was below them. These streaks of pink lit up the still-blue sky with violet shadows increasing every second. 


The sun set on November 14th at 4:59 pm and the time of nautical twilight is 5:58 pm.  In general, nautical twilight, or nautical dusk, is when you can no longer see well enough outside to do anything. In astronomical twilight, or astronomical dusk in this case, the sun is far enough below the horizon that it does not brighten the darkness. And, one can begin to see the stars and planets.