Autumn equinox.

One thing about where I live is that hearing loud sounds off in the night means I've got a non-zero chance of seeing fireworks if I head up to the roof as soon as they start.

Sometimes I make it in time, and sometimes I don't, and sometimes I come up to an empty roof and wonder what caused those noises to begin with. Maybe it was fireworks over the horizon or past a river where I can't see them. Maybe it was an explosion from the power grid instead of a light show.

Whatever reason I have for heading up there, it's pretty much always worth it. Tonight didn't have fireworks, or a moon sighting, or much in the way of stars, but what it did have was some pretty funky-colored clouds. South of me, over midtown Manhattan, there was enough low-hanging cloud cover to catch the lights of the buildings and the marquees and the construction lights - something I didn't notice until I turned around and saw a large, flat cloud was at just the right angle to have a murky orange patch right in its middle.

A strange sight, even for New York City.

There was a patch farther East which was a hazy blue, half-behind a far building, with another segment a little below and west of the orange a fainter purple. Most of the clouds were a greenish gray, somewhat like a chalkboard, without any texture except at the far edges. It was the colors that made them distinctive tonight.

I'm glad I went out there.