A Colourful Evening

From the photographer: “In the evening on 21st April, a day after the total Solar eclipse, we went to Vlamingh Head lighthouse located 20 km north of Exmouth to catch the thin crescent Moon after sunset.

Thin clouds in the west would probably hinder the visibility of the crescent, but the rest of the sky was actually nice and clear. So, I photographed the southern Milky Way arching over the lighthouse, with the Magellanic Clouds shining beside the tower building. Deep southern Milky Way is so much more fun, with the pinkish Carina Nebula, bright open clusters like Theta Carina Cluster (Southern Pleiades), Running Chicken Nebula in Centaurus, prominent dark patch of Coal Sack in Crux, and of course Crux itself with pointers Alpha and Beta Centauri.

The clouds in the west did hide the thin crescent as expected, yet they nicely reflected the rich pinkish and reddish tones of the twilight, which was enriched by the volcanic ash spewed during Hunga Tonga volcano eruption in January 2022.”