Sunrise/Sunset

 The Gegenschein.

In this image, the gegenschein is visible in the Virgo constellation as an oval patch concentrated just above the bright star Spica.

Gegenschein is a faintly bright spot in the night sky centered at the antisolar point(opposite to the sun). The backscatter of sunlight by dust causes this optical phenomenon, also called counterglow. Until now nobody knows the exact origin of the dust. Earlier we thought of this dust as interplanetary dust but recently based on the data from the Juno mission indicates that the dust close to Earth has a local origin in the inner Solar System, best fitting the planet Mars as a source and not from the comets and asteroids. So both the zodiacal light and the gegenschein which we have been observing for all these years could be the dust storm from mars.

Like zodiacal light, the gegenschein is sunlight scattered by the dust. Most of this dust orbits the Sun near the ecliptic plane, with a possible concentration of particles centered at the L2 point of the Earth-Sun system. Gegenschein is distinguished from zodiacal light by its high angle of reflection of the incident sunlight on the dust particles. It forms a slightly brighter elliptical spot directly opposite the Sun within the dimmer band of zodiacal light. The intensity of the gegenschein is relatively enhanced because each dust particle is seen at full phase. The gegenschein is not visible in most inhabited regions of the world due to light pollution. Only from very dark skies, we can see both Zodiacal light and Geneschein.

Canon 6D, Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ISO:8000, 30 secs exposure
Processed in Photoshop.
Date:10.04.2021(Empty quarter, Bortle 2 : about 500kms drive from my home)