Usually the
solar corona appears white, and to
some observers the corona of last week's total solar eclipse did appear
this pearly color.

But this time, totality observers in Spain saw a corona that appeared unusually golden.

For one reason, from
Spain,
the totality occurred when the setting Sun was near the horizon.

That low, sunlight travels through a large amount of
air which scatters out blue light.

An unusual amount of
smoke in the air from nearby
forest fires
acted as a second filter,
further scattering the
remaining blue tones and deepening the already gold-dominated
light.

The HDR-processed, multiple-exposure
featured image was captured from
Benavente,
Spain last week.

One thing that did not appear golden was a
hydrogen-glowing
prominence that hovered over the
Sun's left edge --
its original
bright pink color survived.