Moon, Planets and Regulus in Twilight

From the photographer: “During my holidays on the island of Kythira, which in Ancient Greek Mythology,  was considered to be the island of celestial Afrodite (Venus), I had the chance to capture during the twilight the Crescent Moon, the Venus, the Mars, the Mercury and the Regulus.

It seems like an ideal ending for a trip, although, if you look a bit closer you might observe something weird with these clouds; these are not clouds. This is smoke caused by the wildfires in Greece, mainly from the wildfires in the areas of Megara and Loutraki.

The heavy northern wind made the operations extremely difficult for five days, burning more than 1.5 million square meters till 21 July 2023 (only in these areas without counting the numerous smaller fires as well as the wildfires that are active now). Any government of the last 20 years seems unable to tackle this and nature is screaming; help!”