The Zodiacal Light   Photographed in July '07 by Yuri Beletsky at the ESO Paranal Observatory high in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The dust disk producing the zodiacal light lies approximately in the same plane as that of Earth's orbit around the sun. The latter is marked in the sky as the ecliptic, the path of the sun against the stars. The scattered light from the dust therefore appears along the ecliptic. This image was taken when the eclip[tic was inclined steeply to the horizon and when the Milky Way was not in the background ~ ideal conditions. Image ©Yuri Beletsky, shown with permission.