When will the zodiacal light can be seen during the night?

Question

I know zodiacal light is a dust release from the comets which scatters light from the sun, and I hear it was rare and can be seen during the night but I don't know when.

Answer 1

The Zodiacal Light can be seen almost any evening or morning. The winter months are the worst time, because the sun sets at more of an angle to the horizon, placing the ZL nearer the decreasing (or increasing in the morning) glare of the sun along the horizon. Start looking for it extending from where the sun sets upward along the path the sun took that day (or where it rises and where the sun will go if you are out in the morning). It really isn't all that rare, but some evenings are better. It is diffuse, and broad, and sort of wedged shaped, and extends upward close to 45 degrees out from the sun (translating to 3 hours from the sun). So, if you wait an hour after sunset and go to a really dark site you should be able to see it. It is named the Zodiacal Light because it lies mainly in the Zodiac, the path of the sun through the sky. There is also a fainter glow called the Gegenshein (spelling??) that is a round glow directly opposite the sun in the sky, formed by the same cometary debris, and it is hard to see.

Answer 2

It's spelled with a "c": gegenschein.

Zodiacal light is easy to see after dusk or before dawn in a clear, dark site. It will be in the plane of the Ecliptic, like the planets. But it's much fainter than the Milky Way, so if the Milky Way isn't knocking your eye out, you won't see it. Gegenschein is much fainter yet.