Re: press release

["Shawn Dvorak" <sdvorak@bright.net>]

Gegenschein is the brightening in the sun's scattered light from the dust
in the planetary plane of the solar system.  It appears directly opposite
of the sun in the sky so it would be on the celestial equator twice a year,
at the equinoxes.

Gegenschein appears as a vague brightening a few degrees in diameter -
though I've never actually seen it.  Since it is visible to the eye I would
imagine that it would be a fairly easy target for a sufficiently
large-field CCD image from a dark location.

----------
> From: Herbert R Johnson <hjohnson@pluto.njcc.com>
> To: Peter R. McCullough <pmcc@astro.uiuc.edu>
> Cc: tass@wwa.com
> Subject: Re: press release
> Date: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 10:10
> 
> On Tue, 5 May 1998 07:10:50 -0500 (CDT), "Peter R. McCullough"
<pmcc@astro.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> *>
> *>While I'm at it, we see the Gegenshein in our data (someone asked
> *>about that previously). We haven't investigated it for structure yet,
> *>but will soon.
> *>
> *>- Peter
> 
> I'm not sure if Mark III can see this phenomena: I don't think it's
> around the celestial equator. Too bad, it's an ideal target for a
wide-field
> CCD camera at a dark site. I believe I've suggested that a strip through
the
> Milky Way would be a nice image. It's hard to think "big" in astronomy as
> most instruments and studies are narrow-field. But wide-field is our
> "strong suit".
> 
> Herb Johnson
> 
> 
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