False Dawn.jpg
Many have been fooled into thinking that it marks the start of morning twilight. The Persian astronomer Omar Khayyam referred to this ghostly glow in his poem, The Rubaiyat. When false dawn streaks the east with cold, gray line, Pour in your cups the pure blood of the vine; The truth, they say, tastes bitter in the mouth, This is a token that the “Truth” is wine. Unlike the stars of the Milky Way, the source of false dawn lies between the inner planets of our Solar System. Billions of dust grains orbit the sun in a flattened disk spread out along the ecliptic. Many of these particles were ejected by comets. The dust reflects and scatters sunlight creating a visible triangular glow above the horizon. It can be seen for up to an hour before true dawn begins to break. Unlike true dawn, though, there’s no rosy colour to the false dawn. The sub zero cold, early hours would bring this humongous Zodiacal Light right on schedule each night at Hanle, brighter than the Milky Way and rising to great heights.
Tripod & Camera Astro-Photographs in this album have been taken with a still camera. Tripod, Camera, location and long exposure. Hope beginners get motivated to take simple astrophotographs looking at this album.
