Our solar system is pretty dusty. Comets leave some dust as they whip around the sun, and there are particles left over from when the planets were formed. Some of this dust enters the Earth's atmosphere and is seen as sporadic meteors almost anytime you're out at night under a reasonably dark sky. The bulk of this material lies in the plane of the solar system, along the ecliptic, or zodiac, as seen from Earth. When sunlight is reflected off these dust particles in our solar system, we see the zodiacal light, which is an elliptical glow along the ecliptic extending up from the horizon just after sunset or before sunrise. How high it rises is variable, but it frequently extends half way to the zenith. The zodiacal light is visible in middle latitudes after sunset in the spring and before sunrise in the autumn. In the tropics, it's generally visible all year long.

The gegenschein is related to the zodiacal light. It's a faint elliptical nebulous light, about 20^o across near the ecliptic and opposite the sun, most often seen during the fall season. It's also referred-to as counterglow. The zodiacal light and gegenschein phenomena are very faint, so they can only be seen in very clear, dark skies, and they're just barely visible on photographs.