04-05-2016, 08:05 PM
HOTPE,
The end of that video had me baffled for a a few minutes but think I've figured it out. At about the 1 minute mark you see a setting sky with a bright glow in the sky. I knew it wasn't the Milky Way but it looked liked something called the zodiacal light and I'm used to seeing it before dawn rather than after sunset. Then I realized that bright light that set was Venus so was watching the zodiacal light in the west after sunset.
The light is caused by dust particles left over from our own solar system's formation billions of years ago that reflect sunlight to us. It's very faint but you can see it when you're dark adapted on the mountain and can probably see it from Puna on really clear and dark nights just before dawn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiacal_light
Thanks again for the video.
The end of that video had me baffled for a a few minutes but think I've figured it out. At about the 1 minute mark you see a setting sky with a bright glow in the sky. I knew it wasn't the Milky Way but it looked liked something called the zodiacal light and I'm used to seeing it before dawn rather than after sunset. Then I realized that bright light that set was Venus so was watching the zodiacal light in the west after sunset.
The light is caused by dust particles left over from our own solar system's formation billions of years ago that reflect sunlight to us. It's very faint but you can see it when you're dark adapted on the mountain and can probably see it from Puna on really clear and dark nights just before dawn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiacal_light
Thanks again for the video.