![\"yb-vlt-zodiacallight\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758340690_544_960x0.jpg\")
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The Moon is rising, with zodiacal light shining on top of it, in the breathtaking framework of ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT) observatory on Cerro Paranal.<\/p>\n
ESO\/Y. Beletsky<\/p>\n
You\u2019re stargazing in September<\/a> from a Dark Sky Park<\/a>, looking east under a clear night sky. You see a strange, triangular glow close to where the sun will come up, but dawn hasn\u2019t broken yet \u2014 it\u2019s too early. What is it? Dawn breaking very early? A distant city? Some kind of planet-shine? <\/p>\n This delicate triangle of light \u2014 called the \u201cfalse dawn\u201d and zodiacal light \u2014 is the glow from dust orbiting the sun. Its ethereal light may be visible in the east before dawn from this weekend for roughly two weeks, with the next 10 mornings after the new moon on Sept. 20 offering the very best views. <\/p>\n The \u201cfalse dawn\u201d is only visible from truly dark-sky locations, but when you see it, it\u2019s unforgettable \u2014 a soft, tapering pyramid reaching up from the horizon that looks great in night photos. The same phenomenon appears after evening twilight in March as the so-called \u201cfalse dusk.\u201d <\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything you need to know about seeing the zodiacal light this week. <\/p>\n ForbesThe Night Sky In September 2025: Two Eclipses, Labor Day Aurora And SaturnBy Jamie Carter<\/a>Zodiacal Light: What You\u2019re Seeing<\/p>\n The zodiacal light is reflected sunlight from interplanetary dust orbiting the sun in the same flat plane as the planets. It\u2019s ancient dust from comets and asteroids \u2014 and possibly the leftovers of planet formation \u2014 reflecting light, but it\u2019s only visible when the angles are right, and the night sky is moonless.<\/p>\n A theory from 2021<\/a> suggests that some of the zodiacal light is actually \u201cMars light\u201d \u2014 grains of dust originally from the red planet trapped in the inner solar system. It\u2019s an elegant, though unproven, explanation for why the glow is brightest along the planets\u2019 shared plane in the solar system. <\/p>\n Zodiacal Light: Where And When To Look<\/p>\n Look to the eastern sky about 90 minutes before sunrise where you are<\/a> on clear, transparent mornings between Sept. 20 and early October. You\u2019ll need to observe from a site with a low horizon and no light pollution in the east. <\/p>\n The glow of zodiacal light aligns with the ecliptic \u2014 the sun\u2019s path through the zodiac constellations and the plane of the solar system \u2014 which is steep at the equator and sloped at mid-northern latitudes. Zodiacal light forms a tall triangle that narrows as it climbs. It\u2019s a beautiful, if subtle, sight. <\/p>\n Celestial beams of light formed from both the Milky Way and zodiacal light crisscross above the telescopes of the U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab.<\/p>\n CTIO\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/P. Hor\u00e1leZodiacal Light: Observing Tips<\/p>\n The new moon on Sept. 20 makes this coming week perfect, with mornings completely moon-free, so the sky will remain dark enough for this extremely low-contrast phenomenon. Here are a few ways to improve your chances: <\/p>\n Use a stargazing app in AR mode to show you where the ecliptic is \u2014 though the compass on your smartphone will find you due east. Arrive early and let your eyes dark-adapt for 20-30 minutes.Use averted vision \u2014 glance slightly to the side of the glow to boost its apparent brightness (your peripheral vision is more sensitive to brightness).To photograph zodiacal light, take roughly 10-second exposures on a high ISO (night mode on a smartphone should work OK if you use a tripod to keep it perfectly still).ForbesGet Ready For The Best Northern Lights Until 2035, Experts SayBy Jamie Carter<\/a>What\u2019s Next In The Night Sky<\/p>\n Monday, Sept. 22, sees the autumnal equinox, which can see a surge in Northern Lights<\/a> thanks to Earth\u2019s magnetic field aligning with that of the solar wind to create ideal conditions for more intense geomagnetic storms. On the same day, a partial solar eclipse<\/a> will be seen from New Zealand, the South Pacific and Antarctica \u2014 the inevitable consequence of the total lunar eclipse<\/a> on Sept. 7, 2025. <\/p>\n For exact timings, use a sunrise and sunset calculator<\/a> for where you are, Stellarium Web<\/a> for a sky chart and Night Sky Tonight: Visible Planets at Your Location<\/a> for positions and rise\/set times for planets.<\/p>\n Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Moon is rising, with zodiacal light shining on top of it, in the breathtaking framework of ESO\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[800,24762,49,48,82056,82057,82058,66,6299,82059,8075,82055],"class_list":["post-156289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-astrophotography","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-false-dawn","tag-false-dusk","tag-interplanetary-dust","tag-science","tag-stargazing","tag-sunrise","tag-sunset","tag-zodiacal-light"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}