Winter's Aurora
Winter Aurora on 3/13/2021 at 10:11pm
Sometimes it pays to look around when watching the aurora. After taking several shots, I noticed that the Winter Milky Way was setting in the West. This was a great chance to shoot the aurora along with the Milky Way and Winter constellations.
... but I got an extra bonus ...
While post-processing the picture, I noticed a pale glow that I thought was light pollution. Given that there isn't much light pollution inland from the NorthShore, it had to be something else. Then I noticed that glow was along the ecliptic.
All planets revolve around the Sun within the same relative plane that we call the ecliptic. But there are more than planets ... there's also a lot of dust and debris. When conditions are just right, that dust can scatter sunlight after dark, generating a pale glow rising from the horizon known as Zodiac light.
Winter Aurora on 3/13/2021 at 10:11pm
Sometimes it pays to look around when watching the aurora. After taking several shots, I noticed that the Winter Milky Way was setting in the West. This was a great chance to shoot the aurora along with the Milky Way and Winter constellations.
... but I got an extra bonus ...
While post-processing the picture, I noticed a pale glow that I thought was light pollution. Given that there isn't much light pollution inland from the NorthShore, it had to be something else. Then I noticed that glow was along the ecliptic.
All planets revolve around the Sun within the same relative plane that we call the ecliptic. But there are more than planets ... there's also a lot of dust and debris. When conditions are just right, that dust can scatter sunlight after dark, generating a pale glow rising from the horizon known as Zodiac light.