This time I was ready and looked east. Above the house there is a greyish bit that I used to think was cloud in the distance. Above the grey is a faint pinkish band that is called the Belt of Venus.
Here is the view to the west into the sunset. Notice the New Moon.
I had read that the effect covers between 10 and 20 degrees above the horizon. First finger to little finger at arm's length is about 15 degrees but note that my camera was too close to my hand to be truly 15 degrees. The angle shown in the picture is bigger than 15 degrees.
This website has a good diagram explaining the grey bit:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/earshad.htm The grey bit is actually the shadow of the Earth because the Sun is now below the horizon of the curved Earth. Looking west a sunset seems red because the light travels a long way through the atmosphere. It encounters a lot of dust so the blue is scattered and red light reaches us. The Belt of Venus is when the red light passes us and is back-scattered in our direction.
