Three images of a spectacular sunset seen from Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire UK - 18 February 2008

Looking WSW down the Western Solent at 17:27 GMT - one minute after sunset
Pentax K100D Digital SLR - Tele-zoom lens at wideangle - 35mm equivalent is 75mm

Looking WSW down the Western Solent at 17:53 GMT - 27 minutes after sunset
Pentax K100D Digital SLR - Wideangle zoom lens at wideangle - 35mm equivalent is 27mm

Horizontal angle of view is about 66 degrees. On the horizon, you can see faintly Egypt Point towards the left hand side and Fawley Power Station towards the right hand side. The apparent increase in brightness compared to the top photo is not real - it is caused by a rapidly darkening sky almost at the end of civil twilight, which made the the sunset stand out spectacularly.

Looking WSW down the Western Solent at 18:06 GMT - 40 minutes after sunset
Pentax K100D Digital SLR - Wideangle zoom lens at wideangle - 35mm equivalent is 27mm

You can see shadows in the red sunset, radiating from the sun's position well below the horizon and caused by intervening clouds

This event was seen, photographed and reported widely across the UK and parts of Europe and the colours are close to what was seen - although the camera could not capture the full range of colours and contrast, not even the original RAW images can do that.

The cause has been attributed to unusually low temperatures in the stratosphere causing high altitude ice crystals and thin cirrostratus-type clouds to form and these conditions seemed to be at their peak on 17 and 18 February 2008. If you look closely at the top photo, you can see faintly some of the thin high cloud thought to be responsible for the conditions. Thanks to contributors to uk.sci.weather and Dutch TV (!) for the explanation and no thanks to the BBC TV Weather Presenters for ignoring it.

(c) Dave Ludlow 2008