zodiacal light

zodiacal light (plural zodiacal lights)

1. (astronomy) A soft glow of white light seen in the sky along the ecliptic in an elongated triangular form with its base being on the horizon, particularly in the tropics.
   • 1856, George Jones, “No. 271. December 30th, 1854: Morning.”, in Observations on the Zodiacal Light, from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, Made Chiefly on Board the United States Steam-Frigate Mississippi, during Her Late Cruise in Eastern Seas, and Her Voyage Homeward: With Conclusions from the Data thus Obtained (Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, […]; III; 33d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Ex. Doc. no. 79), Washington, D.C.: Beverley Tucker, senate printer, →OCLC, page 542:

     I also, this morning gave attention to the stars as seen through the Zodiacal Light, and found, even to 4^h 30^m, when the effulgent Light below the zigzag lines is very strong, that with the naked eye I could readily make out stars of the 6th magnitude within the effulgent Light; [...]

   • 1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Thing in the Forest”, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC, pages 81–82:

     Westward I saw the zodiacal light mingling with the yellow brilliance of the evening star.

• exozodiacal light

• exozodiacal dust
• zodiacal cloud
• zodiacal dust

• gegenschein
• Kordylewski cloud