Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The light from the eastern sky after the sun has set: an apparent reflection of the sunset twilight glow, but really the independent illumination of the eastern atmospheric dust and haze by sunbeams that pass far above the observer through the upper atmosphere when the sun is below the horizon. The lower limit of the counter-glow is the twilight-arch.
  • noun A patch of extremely faint luminosity in the heavens always opposite to the sun. It is supposed to be connected with the zodiacal light.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Astron.) An exceedingly faint roundish or somewhat oblong nebulous light near the ecliptic and opposite the sun, best seen during September and October, when in the constellations Sagittarius and Pisces. Its cause is not yet understood. Called also Gegenschein.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The gegenschein.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a faint spot of light in the night sky that appears directly opposite the position of the sun; a reflection of sunlight by micrometeoric material in space

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

counter- +‎ glow

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Examples

  • This is the Gegenschein, derived from a German word meaning "counterglow," since it is always opposite or "counter" in position to the sun in the sky.

    SPACE.com 2008

  • • there is sufficient material at the-Earth-Moon libration points L4 and L5 to produce a solar counterglow of 20 S10 Vis brightness

    Opportunity Finds Another Big Meteorite | Universe Today 2009

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