I love to learn new stuff about everything. So when I read about the zodiacal light I had to see for myself. Well, fingers crossed.
Before I get to the zodiacal light, here is a photo by Kate of hole-punch clouds. You can see the hole-punch at the bottom of the cloud near to the horizon. Very cool and thanks Kate. Here’s a link about the hole-punch clouds: What are hole-punch clouds, aka fallstreak holes?
Now to the zodiacal light. No there is no zodiacal light here. This is sunset and of course looking to the west because that is where to see the zodiacal light. Now what is the zodiacal light you ask. It is a hazy pyramid of light that extends up from the horizon in the west caused by cosmic dust. In the northern hemisphere it is called false dusk. This article explains it all: See the zodiacal light in dark skies beginning around now. Photo taken at 6:37pm.
At 7:19pm still nothing that I noticed.
Now about 90 minutes pass sunset, 7:52pm. The blue arrows are human “light pollution”. The red arrow points to what I believe is the zodiacal light. However at this point I was not at all certain. The next order of investigate I would take another photo an hour later.
Blue arrows human and the red arrow now points to a single star at the horizon. At this point I am like 97% I saw the zodiacal light in the above photo.
And to check further this morning at 6am I looked again. Blue arrows human lights and red arrow shows where the zodiacal light was last night. Some day when I get out to a really dark sky place you can bet I will be watching for it again. 🙂
While drinking my tea this morning I saw the waning crescent moon (6%) coming up. The earthshine was quite visible!
Then a little later I looked out the back door to see this beautiful layer of low fog and the Belt of Venus!
It was very enchanting!
So the next time you have a clear dark sky in the spring or fall, look for the zodiacal light!
Monday morning’s fog was exceptionally thick here – could hardly see 50 feet in front of you – so magical – like your photos.
That Wooly Devil is beautiful – such a unique flower. Imagine finding an entirely new genus.
What a great post! Thanks for teaching me about zodiacal light – there are so many unnoticed wonders around us. I love the crescent moon Earthshine photo – it looks Halloweenish – and the final fog pic is exceptional.
Fog sure made some great photos for you. And i think you saw the zodiacal light too.
👏🏻
Monday morning’s fog was exceptionally thick here – could hardly see 50 feet in front of you – so magical – like your photos.
That Wooly Devil is beautiful – such a unique flower. Imagine finding an entirely new genus.
It would be cool indeed!
What a great post! Thanks for teaching me about zodiacal light – there are so many unnoticed wonders around us. I love the crescent moon Earthshine photo – it looks Halloweenish – and the final fog pic is exceptional.
Always fun to learn! And thank you!