The ground state optimized structure of CV possesses D 3 symmetry, as shown in Fig. . This symmetry causes a degeneracy in the two lowest lying excitations, both of which are dipole-allowed. Static (TD)DFT calculations of the optimized chromophore in vacuum reveal that this degeneracy is caused by the degeneracy of two specific canonical molecular orbitals (MOs), the HOMO and the HOMO-1 orbitals, with S 1 being dominated by a HOMO to LUMO (S 1 ) and S 2 a HOMO-1 to LUMO (S 2 ) transition (see Fig. ). When the HOMO and HOMO-1 orbitals are degenerate, the S 1 and S 2 excitations are found to be equal in energy, respectively, with an oscillator strength of 0.89. Thus without the presence of symmetry-breaking chromophore motion or environmental interactions lifting the degeneracy of the low-lying excited states, one would expect the optical absorption spectrum to be dominated by a single spectral feature.