Venus in a purple sunset

Thursday evening last I was leaving work and I pulled over on the road to try and see Venus appear in the
sunset sky but what struck me overall was that the colour appeared a strange pink then purple.
Here is the reason why.
A recent eruption from a volcano in Alaska near Dutch harbor called Kasatochi
(If you watch Deadliest Catch you'll know where this is) has lingering aerosols in the atmosphere scattering the light and creating these pretty evening skies.

I wouldn't have thought it would be seen from here but apparently it's quite widespread going by spaceweather.com

Aha! Another "Deadliest Catch" viewer.
One thing puzzled me though...what's a "sunset"?

Thats interesting stuff, something to keep an eye on over the next while.

I remember a similar trait after Mt. Pinatubo errupted in the early 90's. We had a total lunar eclipse shortly after the eruption, but the particle pollution made seeing totality quite different - it was almost black instead of blood red. Thanks for pointing that out Frank.

Seanie.

Awh deadliest catchh what a great show! woops steering off course! Its quite crazy how it can affect us on the other side of the ocean!

The purple continues.
It was visible again this evening for around 10 min during sunset (at around 5.50pm)
A sort of cone of really quite a distinct purple (similar in shape to the Zodiacal light.)