Astronomy Essentials

See the zodiacal light now, before it’s gone


Marcy Curran created this zodiacal light video for you. We hope you enjoy it!

Zodiacal light around March equinox

The moon is waning now, leaving the evening sky dark for seeing the zodiacal light! It’s a cone of eerie light in the sky just after evening twilight ends … or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, before twilight begins at dawn. We on the northern half of the globe have our best chance to see it in a moon-free sky now. The light is easiest to see (for all of Earth) around the March equinox. So watch for it now, through about mid-April.

The zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light, extending up from your horizon.

We in the north call it the false dusk. In the Southern Hemisphere now, it goes by the name false dawn.

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Night sky with dark horizon in the foreground. Wide, fuzzy cone of light upward from horizon with two bright planets.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn captured this image on February 19, 2023, near Pine Mountain Club, California. He wrote: “The zodiacal light over the Pacific … at the top of the image is the Pleiades star cluster. At the bottom of the image are the planets Jupiter and Venus setting into the light pollution and marine layer.” Thank you, Michael!

Once you spot them, you’ll know what it is

Maybe you’ve seen the zodiacal light in the sky and not realized it. Maybe you glimpsed it while driving on a highway or country road at this time of year. Suppose you’re driving toward the west in springtime around 90 minutes after sunset. You notice what you think is the lingering evening twilight, or the light of a nearby town, over the horizon. Instead, you might be seeing the zodiacal light.

Note for Southern Hemisphere: Around late February through March, and into early May – for you – the zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light. It extends up from your eastern horizon before morning twilight begins.

If you see it, let us know! If you capture a shot of the zodiacal light, you can submit it here at EarthSky Community Photos.

Zodiacal light:Cone of light extending at a steep angle from horizon to cluster of stars in starry night sky.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Christoph Stopka in Westcliffe, Colorado, took this gorgeous image of the zodiacal light on March 1, 2022, over the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, part of the Colorado Rockies. It looks like a pyramid of light on the horizon, and appears when all traces of twilight have left the evening sky. Thank you, Cristoph! Read more about this photo.

What is this eerie light?

People used to think zodiacal light originated somehow from phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere. But today we understand it as sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the sun in the inner solar system. These grains were once thought to be left over from the process that created our Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. In recent years, though, there’s been discussion about their possible origin in dust storms on the planet Mars. Read more: Do Mars dust storms cause the zodiacal light?

Whatever their origin, these dust grains in space spread out from the sun in the same flat disk of space inhabited by Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. This flat space around the sun – the plane of our solar system – translates on our sky to a narrow pathway called the ecliptic. This is the same pathway traveled by the sun and moon as they journey across our sky.

Ancient civilizations called the pathway of the sun and moon the zodiac or pathway of animals. They did this in honor of the constellations seen beyond it. Hence the name zodiacal light.

The grains of dust are thought to range from about millimeter-sized to micron-sized. They are densest around the immediate vicinity of the sun and extending outward beyond the orbit of Mars. Sunlight shines on these dust grains to create the light we see.

Springtime? Autumn? What’s best?

The answer to that varies. For both hemispheres, springtime is the best time to see the zodiacal light in the evening. Autumn is the best time to see it before dawn. Look for the zodiacal light in the east around the time of the autumn equinox. Look for it in the west after sunset around the time of the spring equinox.

But, of course, spring and autumn fall in different months for Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres. So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere look for the zodiacal light before dawn from about late August through early November. In those same months, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the evening.

Likewise, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, look for the evening zodiacal light from late February through early May. During those months, from the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the morning.

How to see the light

The zodiacal light can be extremely bright and easy to see from latitudes like those in the southern U.S.

Meanwhile, skywatchers in the northern U.S. or Canada sometimes say, wistfully, that they’ve never seen it.

You’ll need a dark sky location to see the zodiacal light, someplace where city lights aren’t obscuring the natural lights in the sky. The zodiacal light is even milkier in appearance than the summer Milky Way. It’s most visible after dusk in spring because, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the ecliptic – or path of the sun and moon – stands nearly straight up in spring with respect to the western horizon after dusk. Likewise, the zodiacal light is easiest to see before dawn in autumn, because then the ecliptic is most perpendicular to the eastern horizon in the morning.

In spring, the zodiacal light can be seen for up to an hour after dusk ends. Or, in autumn, it can be seen for up to an hour before dawn. Unlike true dusk, though, there’s no rosy color to the zodiacal light. The reddish skies at dawn and dusk are caused by Earth’s atmosphere, while the zodiacal light originates far outside our atmosphere.

The darker your sky, the better your chances of seeing it. Your best bet is to pick a night when the moon is out of the sky, although it’s definitely possible, and very lovely, to see a slim crescent moon in the midst of this strange milky pyramid of light. In the springtime, the best time to look for the zodiacal light – and avoid moonlight – is a few days after the full moon through a few days after a new moon.

Zodiacal light photos from our community

Night sky, fuzzy cone of light, two bright dots, and tiny bright oval, above snowy mountains.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jeff Andrew captured this image in Summit County, Colorado, on March 13, 2023, and wrote: “A nice display of zodiacal light that appears to emanate from the setting planet Venus, but in reality is a glow of diffuse sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. The light extends towards and past the Pleiades open star cluster and the Taurus constellation ending near the planet Mars. Also visible in this image is the Orion constellation, the Andromeda galaxy, the Perseus constellation, the Double Star Cluster in Perseus, and the Aries constellation. In the foreground is the snow-covered Gore Mountain Range of central Colorado.” Thank you, Jeff!
Two fuzzy bands of light shining up from horizon, 1 of the Milky Way and 1 of the zodiacal light.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn in Pine Mountain Club, California, took this image on September 26, 2022. Thank you, Michael!
Pyramid-shaped hazy band of zodiacal light, next to a bright section of the starry Milky Way.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Caroline Haldeman captured this image from Flagstaff, Arizona, on January 11, 2021. On the left you see the hazy pyramid of the zodiacal light. On the right is the starry band of the Milky Way. The image is part of a video she made, which you can see here. Thanks, Caroline!

Bottom line: If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see the zodiacal light from late February to early May as a hazy pyramid of light extending up from the western horizon, beginning about an hour after sunset. Southern Hemisphere? Look east before dawn.

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Posted 
March 28, 2024
 in 
Astronomy Essentials

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