‘False dawn’ to glow after nightfall across Northern Hemisphere
Have you ever seen this mysterious sight in early autumn or spring? This pyramid-shaped glow of light is visible around the time of the equinox.
The weeks surrounding the equinox bring a great opportunity for stargazers to see the zodiacal light, an eerie glow near the horizon that is not visible any other time of the year.
The phenomenon, sometimes referred to as false dawn, appears in the western sky shortly after sunset around the vernal equinox, which occurs around mid-March.
The Zodiacal light, left, the Venus and the Milky Way, right, appear near the top of the Three-Stone Hill on the Bukk Plateau, near Felsotarkany, 137 kms northeast of Budapest, Hungary, Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. (Peter Komka/MTI via AP)
The zodiacal light is not a source of light in the night sky but rather is just reflected light from the sun.
“What we're seeing is sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the Sun in the inner solar system,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said.
“These dust grains journey across our sky in the ecliptic, the same plane as the moon and the planets,” JPL said.
This annimation shows the cosmic dust responsible for the zodiacal lights in the solar system's ecliptic plane. (Credit: NASA/JPL)
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the zodiacal lights will be best seen during the evening after sunset, while those in the Southern Hemisphere should look for them before sunrise.
This means that people across the United States should be able to see the zodiacal light between one and two hours after sunset when the evening twilight fades to dark, weather permitting.
“It looks like a hazy pyramid of light in the west after true darkness falls,” EarthSky said.
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Those hoping to see the light should head away from any source of light pollution for the best chance to see the phenomenon. If there is too much light pollution, the sky will be too bright and wash out the zodiacal light.
“You definitely do need a dark sky location to see the zodiacal light, someplace where city lights aren’t obscuring the natural lights in the sky,” EarthSky said.
The phenomenon is also visible around the September equinox, however, it appears before daybreak in the Northern Hemisphere and after sunset in the Southern Hemisphere. This is the opposite of when it can be seen around the March equinox.
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