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This spectacular
trio of comet and twin open clusters was a photographic and visual
treat. Closest approach was within hours of this image, which
was taken at 4:15 am Friday morning. The comet not only shows
a stunning cyan/green coloration, but a short fan tail pointing
downwards. As we head into the full moon in two weeks, the comet
will pass the Earth very closely and we will be keeping track
of its expanding coma and hopefully lengthening tail.
Image Details
NGC884 is on the
left, and is a 6.1 magnitude open cluster spanning half a degree
in width. To its right is NGC869 which is slightly fainter at
6.7 magnitude but the same angular size. These clusters are strewn
with many K type stars which appear as orange in this image.
All 12 images were combined in Images Plus with the comet images
from 3:15 to 4:15 brought together on a stack over the 4:15 image.
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