Tropical False Dawn

El Nido is a town in northern Palawan, Philippines, and a tropical vacation destination. The rocky Dolarog Beach is in the foreground, looking at islands and limestone hills around Bacuit Bay. While this coast and islands are targets for boat trips in daytime, it is mostly silent and peaceful at night. This wide panorama is from the end of the night, just before dawn in fact, when there was no hint of twilight. But there are already two sources of diffuse light. The first is the rising Milky Way stretching low over the southern horizon, mostly crossing the deep southern constellations of Centaurus and Crux and also Scorpius rising in the southeast. Most of the structure in the Milky Way in the form of star clouds and dark clouds are further diffused by the low clouds and haze. The second source is Zodiacal Light (also known as the false dawn), crossing the constellations of Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Libra and Virgo. Two planets, Saturn and Jupiter are embedded in Zodiacal Light.