Space Spiral and a Beautiful Starry sky

An unusually "perfect" cosmic corkscrew surrounds the binary star system LL Pegasi in a new Hubble Space Telescope picture released this week.

Take a look ! 

Isn't this is coooool :) 

Astronomers think the spiral's evenly spaced rings are being created because one of the stars in the binary pair is dying. Unlike more massive stars that end their lives in explosive supernovae, LL Pegasi is quietly shedding its outer layers of gas and dust to form what's called a planetary nebula.

The dying star itself is still hidden by a dusty cocoon. But it's ejecting material at about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) an hour, the researchers calculate, forming a new ring in the spiral every 800 years - wow!

Oh! and for the star gazers, 

for the next week or so sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere will have the chance to see an elusive celestial pyramid known as the zodiacal light.

 False Dawn or  Zodiacal Light or what-so-ever.. this pic is just amazing! the lovely stars.. the twilight.. beaaautiful!

by Andrew Fazekas @NationalGegraphic

Published September 9, 2010

 The triangular tower of light is easiest to spot around the spring and fall equinoxes. Look for it over the eastern horizon about an hour before sunrise in the fall, and over the western horizon just before sunset in the spring.

At best, the zodiacal light is no brighter than the dim plane of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, so atmospheric haze, a bright moon, or light pollution can hide the faint cone from view.

Here's a picture of the Milky Way arcing over Iran

In general, the zodiacal light is easiest to see in dark, rural areas, particularly on moonless nights.

September 8 saw a new moon—when the unilluminated side of the moon faces Earth—so viewing conditions should be favorable for the next few days as the waxing moon slowly returns to full brightness.

Since the light appears close to dawn in the fall, the phenomenon was often mistaken in antiquity for the light of the rising sun, and it became known as the false dawn.

What is important to note is that the unusual shape of the light should help sky-watchers tell the difference.

It will look like a mostly vertical column or pyramid, in contrast to the horizontal true dawn and quoting Gyuk "Look for a soft, triangular, pearly glow that precedes the sun and sunrise." wow!

Unlike the stars and gases of the Milky Way, which stretch away from Earth for light-years, the source of the zodiacal light lies between the inner planets of oursolar system.

There, billions of dust grains orbit the sun in a flattened disk spread out along the ecliptic—the plane of the solar system, which also contains the paths of the 12 constellations of the zodiac.

Happy Star gazing..... :)

Via   National Geographic