Venus and Light Pillar

A few minutes after sunset a beautiful light pillar occurred over the Rhine Main area in Central Germany. At the upper right of the image also planet Venus is visible. Venus is about to move north of the sun towards its inner conjunction 9 days later. The image was taken at 50 degrees North, where it is unusual that a planet or the Moon stand right of the setting sun, which position after sunset is still marked on the image by the light pillar. As the international airport of Frankfurt/Main is below the dark horizon some planes are also visible in the sky, one just taking off near the horizon. The image was taken 11 minutes after sunset, the light pillar disappeared 2 minutes later. © Stephan Heinsius