Belt of Venus over California Desert

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
                                                     -- Marcel Proust

The next time you look at a sunset, don't think the show is over when the sun goes below the horizon! Wait another 10 or 15 minutes, and turn around. Look in the part of the sky opposite the sun for the Belt of Venus -- an arcing pink band of atmosphere above the darker shadow of the earth. I took this photograph of the belt while camping in a remote part of the California desert; a few agave stalks completed the composition.

Date: December 30, 2006
Time: 4:51 p.m. PST
Location: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California
Camera: Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR on fixed tripod
Film: Fuji Provia 100F slide
Focal length: 40 mm
Aperture: f/8-11
Exposure time: 1/15 second
Scanner: Nikon Coolscan LS-2000