Skyline ~

Yesterday morning we were treated to a beautiful skyline!

This is a picture from our back yard.  Just too beautiful to not enjoy so instead of heading out to school William & I took a walk to take pictures & talk about the skyline.

Then we came home & goggled for information about why the

sky is pink & here's what we learned;

The color of the sky is determined by which colors of light from the sun get scattered around the atmosphere(the air around the earth). When red light is scattered the sky looks red. When you look at the sky your eyes are sensing the light that is being scattered around the atmosphere. Blue light is normally scattered by the gases oxygen and nitrogen which make up most of the atmosphere while red, yellow, and other mixtures of light pink passes right through. However, unlike the gases such as nitrogen and oxygen that do not scatter red and pink light, other particles such as water, pollution, and dust can and do scatter red and pink light making the sky look different shades of red or pink. So when the sun light has to pass though lots of pollution, dust, or water particles red and pink light can get scattered along with the blue making the sky look red or pink. This often happens when it is very polluted, when there is lots of water or dust in the air, or during the morning or dusk when sunlight passes though more of the atmosphere to reach us giving it more opportunities to scatter off of stuff in the air.

So, in a nutshell the color changes in the sky is caused by pollution.

When I was a child my Grandma used to say it was

Mrs. Clause in North Pole frosting cookies. 

I think I like that explanation better!