Zodiacal Light and Venus Rising
30 sec, ISO 4000 | Nikon D3s + 14-24mm f/2.8G
1-m Yale Telescope | Lunar Scintillometer | Curtis-Schmidt Telescope
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile, 13 April 2011
© 2011 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
Zodiacal light is a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow seen in the night sky which appears to extend up from the vicinity of the sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. Caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud, it is so faint that either moonlight or light pollution renders it invisible. The zodiacal light decreases in intensity with distance from the Sun, but on very dark nights it has been observed in a band completely around the ecliptic. In fact, the zodiacal light covers the entire sky, being responsible for 60% of the total skylight on a moonless night. There is also a very faint, but still slightly increased, oval glow directly opposite the Sun which is known as the gegenschein. [Source: Wikipedia]
Zodiacal Light and Venus Rising
30 sec, ISO 4000 | Nikon D3s + 14-24mm f/2.8G
1-m Yale Telescope | Lunar Scintillometer | Curtis-Schmidt Telescope
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile, 13 April 2011
© 2011 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
Zodiacal light is a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow seen in the night sky which appears to extend up from the vicinity of the sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. Caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud, it is so faint that either moonlight or light pollution renders it invisible. The zodiacal light decreases in intensity with distance from the Sun, but on very dark nights it has been observed in a band completely around the ecliptic. In fact, the zodiacal light covers the entire sky, being responsible for 60% of the total skylight on a moonless night. There is also a very faint, but still slightly increased, oval glow directly opposite the Sun which is known as the gegenschein. [Source: Wikipedia]