Zodiacal Light This phenomena appears as a faint angular glow protruding from the horizon. However i

Zodiacal LightThis phenomena appears as a faint angular glow protruding from the horizon. However it only appears at certain time of the night during certain times of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere it can be seen to the east just before dawn, around the autumn equinox (September to October), and to the west just after dusk, around the spring equinox (March to April). This is reversed for the Southern Hemisphere. Along with these times and positions, an area with low light pollution is also needed to see these event due to their low brightness.These lights are produced from sunlight reflecting off scattered dust particles in our solar system. All objects orbiting the sun in our solar system are on the same plane, which viewing this plane from earth we see a side profile, a line. This is called the Ecliptic, a line that the planets, the Sun, and roughly the Moon fall upon in the sky. The angular shape of the Zodiacal Lights also points along the Ecliptic as these dust particles also fall on this same plane. This angular shape is produced as the reflection is brightest when at a small angle to the sun, therefore brighter and wider at the horizon and narrows to a fainter point.-JCCredit: ESO- http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1348a/ -- source link

More pics about