The zodiacal light is a very faint glow that can be seen after dusk or just before dawn. It’s always seen along the ecliptic, the path of the sun through the background of stars, where the zodiac constellations are located. In the spring, the zodiacal light can be seen in the western sky after sunset. This year, March 23rd to April 6th will be the best days to view it. In the fall, the best time to view zodiacal light is before twilight in the early morning eastern sky.

It was first noted by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1683 and explained by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier in 1684. Zodiacal light is produced by the sunlight reflecting off dust particles located in the plane of the solar system. The sunlight reflects off the particles and creates a pale, triangular-shaped glow above the horizon in the path of the sun. The dust is also called the interplanetary dust cloud, meaning dust located in between the planets in our solar system. Several spacecraft have identified the dust particles as dust from comet’s tails and from asteroid collisions.