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Credit & Copyright: Wil Milan
Explanation:
Comet
C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) has crossed the celestial equator and is
heading north.
Outward bound,
this primordial
piece of the solar system is still
just visible to the unaided eye and can now be sighted by northern
hemisphere skygazers as it moves
through
the constellation Pisces.
This
picture of the comet is a combination of 33 individual one minute
exposures made on June 30 with a small telescope and
digital camera situated in central Arizona, USA.
The composite image brings out faint details
in the comet's tail which
was
reported to extend for several degrees,
beyond the camera's roughly 2 degree field of view.
Closely spaced, the combined exposures were registered on the
comet so background stars appear trailed.
To produce the "punctuation" at the end of each
star trail, two exposures
near the end of the sequence were left out.
As a result, the final dots nicely reveal the pattern of the
background star field.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet - C/2001 A2 - star trail
Publications with words: comet - C/2001 A2 - star trail
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS