Thread: Zodiacal Light
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Old 16-06-2023, 12:42 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
Highest Observatory in Oz

strongmanmike is offline
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
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Cool capture Richard, great record

From a clean air, truly dark sky the Zodical light looks unbelievable. It was super bright and spectacular from my observatory high up in the Tinderry mountains last New Moon but the most spectacular I have seen it was from Chillagoe, 3hrs drive inland from Cairns in the northern savannah of QLD. It was soooo bright, it was ridiculous, it was almost pure white and essentially covered all of Virgo at the time so we didn't bother observing galaxies The extension to the ZL is known as the Zodiacal Bridge which is a fainter thinner band that extends from where the triangular Zodiacal light ends and follows the entire Ecliptic and in winter it bisects the bright hub of the Milky Way, aaaand in the mix there is also the Gegenschein, the brightening of the Zodical bridge at the anti Solar point. If you are lucky enough to have a super dark unobstructed 360deg view of the sky with good transparency and low solar activity, maaan, it is an awe inspiring sight to end all awe-inspiring sights IMO...

I have managed to see the Gegenschein and detect the faint Zodical Bridge from my Eagleview site in the Tinderry Mountains but sheesh...the attached picture (minus the colour in the Milky Way) is very close to what the sky looked like naked eye from Chillagoe...it was unbelievable and I will never forget it

Mike
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