Zodiacal Light

Here is a note (March 31, 2021) from Andrew Fazekas in National Geographic's "The Night Skies" coverage:

"The Ghostly Zodiacal Light: Tonight and for the next two weeks, keen-eyed skywatchers across northern latitudes get a chance to witness the ghostly glow of the zodiacal lights for about one to two hours after dusk in the western sky. This pyramid-shaped beam of light (pictured above from Chile in 2009) is easily mistaken for the lights of a far-off city. For many centuries, observers have been fooled into thinking the zodiacal light is either the last vestige of evening twilight or the first hints of morning twilight, depending on the time of year it appears. It was believed to have been caused by sunlight hitting the very top of Earth’s atmosphere. But it turns out this light is much more ethereal, resulting from sunlight reflecting off the countless dust particles floating in space. All these dust particles are leftovers from the birth of the planets about 4.5 billion years ago. The best chances to catch this light phenomenon will come in the dark countryside... " And the photo:


My first attempts were all failure, shot on 3-12-21 though.
One of the original:

HDR processed:


So wonder if anyone has done this before or is interested to give it a try soon? Appreciate your sharing of experience, opinions, ideas, and comments.

Nice shot and story. Thanks for sharing

Hi Brent, Thank you for replying. It is a nice shot from the note author (I think). But my trial shots are no show... is it bad timing (date) or something else?

blackstar said:

Hi Brent, Thank you for replying. It is a nice shot from the note author (I think). But my trial shots are no show... is it bad timing (date) or something else?

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Ops! :shame: I,m so sorry and ashamed I didn't realize you did not do the first shot as I didn't read close enough. My bad!

I am thinking you need darker skies to image it, especially if there is sky glow from the city on the horizon washing it out. I don't know if you were too early as far as the date, but all of the images I have seen show dark skies with stars, so maybe you need to shoot a little later after the sun sets.
I am curious now. I have mountains in my way, but I might be able to drive out to the coast or out towards the desert.
Thanks for posting this.

Dawg Pics said:

I am thinking you need darker skies to image it, especially if there is sky glow from the city on the horizon washing it out. I don't know if you were too early as far as the date, but all of the images I have seen show dark skies with stars, so maybe you need to shoot a little later after the sun sets.
I am curious now. I have mountains in my way, but I might be able to drive out to the coast or out towards the desert.
Thanks for posting this.

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Thanks. Maybe the place (San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge, an outskirt area from town) isn't the ideal true dark area, but surely much better than inside the city. To the west view, almost no city light can be seen. All lights in the photos taken were the remnant of sunset. I stay there at the spot well before and after sunset taking continuous shots and trying to see the Z light. Sadly none was eye-visible. The latest shot at the night was taken well after sunset and still no show except stars:
Original:


Processed:


Wish you luck to view the wonderful light and catch it!

(I have deleted the bunny photo, but don't know why it still show below)

The stars are nice, even if you didn't catch the Zodiacal Light. I don't know how much transparency and seeing affect something like that or how variable the visibility is from year to year or by location. I hope you can catch it and tell me how to do it.
I might take a drive tonight and see if I can catch a dark enough place with a horizon.

It seems no luck for me here  I use Stellarium today to see if the Z light is visible here. Starting at 6:00 PM while Sun is still above the horizon, I fast forward and view the western sky until after 8:00. No Z-light ever shows up! Only seeing the bright Mars shinning up there.


To make sure Stellarium has a default setting of sky darkness at the medium-high rate (so it will show a scene that would be invisible in the local low dark, light-polluted sky), I fast forward again to ~ 4:00 AM and turn to the Southern sky. There the beautiful Milky Way is visibly displayed (it's visible between 3:00 and 5:00).<br>


So it's all yours to catch it. Good luck!

Finally, I think the ZL was there when I tried catching on 3-12. I used DT to process one of the original shots and came up with a though-fainted light cone (still barely visible) up to the tilted solar plane. I guess LP is the primary factor for visualizing the ZL (more than MW). Still waiting for Dawg's great catch. I doubt I can make my second attempt before the end of April due to recent knee hurt.

Congratations.
I could faintly see it in the processed image you posted the other day, but I wasn't sure if that was it. I had cloud cover, but I am going to look for a dark spot soon. I broke my wide angle lens, but I am going to give it a try.

I hope your knee heals quickly.

Thanks, Carolyn (if I may). But not much for the excitement that supposes I should catch the ZL in original shots CLEARLY, not a faint trace after processing. It's an embarrassment at least. I read online and there is an intense discussion about how should Stellarium revise and set different darkness defaults for ZL and MW. It resolves the show-MW and no-show-ZL puzzle in my check-up with Stellarium. I believe it needs high darkness to see and catch ZL.

I had X-ray and MRI done on my right knee. Go see an Orthopedic on Thursday. Hope to receive treatment and start recovery soon. Meantime, eager to see your shot.

I played with Stellarium a bit again. Found this surprising scene in the southwest sky at around 8:30 PM. It's not the MW (in the southeast at around 4:00 AM), but probably another farther-fainter galaxy. I wonder if anyone had captured before or even it's uncapturable?

blackstar said:

I had X-ray and MRI done on my right knee. Go see an Orthopedic on Thursday. Hope to receive treatment and start recovery soon. Meantime, eager to see your shot.

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Good Luck with your recovery.

Worth keeping an eye on Betelgeuse as it could turn to a supernova anytime (probably won't in our lifetime though) and that would make some picture

Thanks, Needa.