Zodiacal light at Paranal

Photo of the morning sky above the Paranal Residencia taken by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky. The Milky Way is nicely seen along with its numerous dark dust lanes and amazing nebulae. The Zodiacal light - sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust - is clearly visible as the band of light that is inclined with respect to the Milky Way by about 40-50 degrees. The planet Venus is also visible in this photo, just above the Residencia.