Two Evenings of Beautiful Sunsets

Sunsets on the evenings of Thursday, September 8 and Sunday, September 11 in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metro area were equally striking--but each in their own special way. The sunset on September 8 was influenced and enhanced by high altitude wildfire smoke drifting from the western United States. The image above looks west from Hampshire Circle in Marion, Iowa at 7:18 pm CDT. The image is a 1/500 second exposure at f/5.6, ISO 200 and 55mm focal length.

Zoomed-out image at 7:19 pm. Identical imaging settings. Official sunset on this day was 7:28 pm.

The following images look west from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids. In the image above, alto-cirrus clouds are illuminated by the setting sun, including some dotted lower altitude cumulus (lower left) at 7:09 pm on September 11. The cirrus clouds were situated well above a jet airliner, which was flying through at its cruising altitude at this time.

Similar vertical capture at 7:09 pm.

Changing pattern of cirrus clouds at 7:14 pm. Official sunset was at 7:22 pm.

Western sky beginning to "catch fire" at 7:29 pm.

7:33 pm. Camera has moved to a new position in the park. In the background is Bowman Woods Elementary School. Sky is now spectacularly ablaze.

Panoramic version of the image above it at 7:33 pm. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.