By: Blonde Two

The sunset over Dartmoor was beautiful yesterday. Beautiful, but where did it come from? Here is a bit of Blonde science;

The key word here is scattering. You know, throwing things around in a kind of random way. What happens is that molecules and particles (small things and small stuff) scatter light around (a bit like Christmas but not so organised). The light is different colours because the molecules and particles are different sizes.

Red and orange rays are a longer wave-length than the usual blue and violet rays that make the sky appear blue. In the evening the sun is low to the horizon and the light passes through more air. This long view means that the longer red and orange wave-lengths reach our eyes while the blue and violet ones scatter out of our line of sight.

I have just realised that I have managed to make a really stunning sunset sound both prosaic and tedious. My apologies. Next time you see a red-sky-at-night, my advice is to look at it and not to bother trying to understand it.