Zodiacal Light

© Greg Gibbs. You may not use, replicate, manipulate, or modify this image without my permission. All Rights Reserved.

Zodiacal light, or the false dawn, is a faint, roughly triangular, diffuse white glow seen in the night sky that appears to extend up from the vicinity of the Sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. It is best seen just after sunset and before sunrise in spring and autumn. Zodiacal Light is composed of fine particles of dust in orbit around the sun and is visible because of scattered sunlight from the particles. It is so faint that either moonlight or light pollution renders it invisible.

If you look closely you will also see a meteor strike in the central bulge of the Milky Way. The orange/reddish colour on the horizon is the first faint light from the coming dawn.

Edit: I was never really happy with he original upload of this so I have made a few tweaks here and there to hopefully improve it.