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This photograph shows Gemini North (foreground) and the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope domes in the pre-dawn twilight. Gemini North is part of the international community of observatories built to take advantage of the superb atmospheric conditions on this long dormant volcano which rises 4,214 meters into the dry, stable air of the North Pacific.
The image shows the Milky Way arching over the domes like a snow-laden trestle. The moon (the bright object at right) is being caressed by the delicate band of zodiacal light—a belt of dust in the plane of the inner solar system illuminated by the sun. Observers can see the zodiacal light only from the darkest sites in the world.Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA image by Joy Pollard
