zodiacal light

the false dawn. a soft pyramid of light leaning up from the eastern horizon along the line of the ecliptic, faint enough to be mistaken — and often is — for the day beginning. it was not the day beginning. the day did not begin for another fifty minutes. it was the sun's light remembered on the dust of retired comets.

visible only at the equinoctial weeks, only with the moon down, only from a place where the horizon is dark. drawn here in sepia, which is closer to its actual colour than any black paper would allow. one of the few sky observations the day makes room for. the rest must wait.

field-note · all light comes back. it goes on errands and returns dimmed. this is the receipt for one such errand.

morning star · dawn · dust · observatory · the milky band