(source: Ondrej Králik)
NASA chose a photograph from Chopok for the photo of the day on its website. The picture was taken by Slovak photographer Ondrej Králik, the portal astro.cz informed.
The photo was taken on March 29 on Chopok in the Low Tatra mountains at an altitude of about 2,000 metres. On the picture are two luminous arches stretched across the dome of the sky on a northern spring night.
The arc of the northern Milky Way is visible toward the right, but only above the terrestrial lights, from the perspective of the mountain top. Though dusk has passed, a bright patch of celestial light still hovers near the horizon and fades into a second luminous arch of Zodiacal Light, crossing near the centre of the Milky Way, explained NASA on its website.
Dust in the ecliptic plane reflects sunlight to create the Zodiacal glow, typically prominent after sunset in clear, dark, skies during a northern spring. Almost opposite the Sun, Jupiter shines brightly near the horizon toward the left. Since Jupiter lies near the ecliptic, it appears within the slight brightening of the Zodiacal band also opposite the Sun called the Gegenschein, NASA added.
