A gigantic cloud of dust which lies within the plane of Earth's orbit...
Scheduled air date: 2006 Sep 04-10
A gigantic cloud of dust which lies within the plane of Earth's orbit...
...can sometimes be seen illuminated in the pre-dawn (or post-dusk) sky as a
faint cone called the Zodiacal Light, or False Dawn. It is most easily seen
near equinoxes (shown here for Autumnal Equinox on September 22nd—the Milky way
is also visible near the right side of the image).
(Shown about two hours before sunrise on the morning of
September 22nd for mid-Northern latitudes.)
If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.
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Illustrations on this page were created using
TheSky6 Astronomy
Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc. |