Blue Smoke, Red Sun

I was living in Indiana back in June when I got a surprise lesson in optics, simply by looking out my window to see the golden-orange glow of sunset bathing our lawn. That's odd, I thought to myself, seems like the day just flew by. I checked my watch; it was 3 P.M. I blinked hard, wondering to myself what could be going on. I checked my phone; still 3 P.M. I stepped outside for a better look around. There was no mistaking it; this was the kind of color scheme I was used to seeing an hour or two...