APOD: The Gegenschein Over Chile (2014 Jan 14)

[Chris Peterson]

In defence of the original sentence in the explanation:

In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein ... can be seen 180 degrees around from the Sun in an extremely dark sky.

I read "rarely" and considered that only a minority of people live under dark skies. If the majority can never see the gegenschein, when looking outside from their neighbourhood, then the use of "rarely" is justified, in my humble opinion. But of course, rarity is a subjective word. Perhaps the rarity of gegenschein is magnified as it is a new word to me.

I don't disagree. When I made my original comment, I thought I was reading something different- something that explicitly called the phenomenon rare. But I made that post before going to bed, when I was tired. I don't know if the wording got changed, or if I simply read it wrong. Anyway, rarely seen is different from rare, and I have no issue with the caption.

[geckzilla]

Nope, no words edited except to change Sirius to Rigel. Honest mistake, sir.
[marks the day on the calendar]

Never forget...

[neufer]

Nope, no words edited except to change Sirius to Rigel. Honest mistake, sir.
[marks the day on the calendar] Never forget...

Honest APOD mistakes are rarely schein.

[Beyond]

Nope, no words edited except to change Sirius to Rigel. Honest mistake, sir.
[marks the day on the calendar] Never forget...

Honest APOD mistakes are rarely schein.

Gads, you pulled that one out of a l-o-n-g sock.

[DavidLeodis]

I would be grateful if someone could please confirm (or not) for me that the gegenschein is the faint bluish diagonal feature and not the brightish area directly above the mountains. As it is said to be an "extremely dark sky", and assuming that it is not the gegenschein, then what is the glow above the mountains as surely the Sun would have been well down for it to be a very dark enough to take the photograph? Thanks for any help.

[Chris Peterson]

I would be grateful if someone could please confirm (or not) for me that the gegenschein is the faint bluish diagonal feature and not the brightish area directly above the mountains.

The gegenschein is the brighter spot fairly central in the blue band, which is zodiacal light.

[DavidLeodis]

I would be grateful if someone could please confirm (or not) for me that the gegenschein is the faint bluish diagonal feature and not the brightish area directly above the mountains.

The gegenschein is the brighter spot fairly central in the blue band, which is zodiacal light.

Thanks Chris for that very helpful information which I would not have known, as I had not realised that the zodiacal light is also in the image. Doing a more detailed look at the image I now see the brighter spot area that will be the gegenschein.