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image credit & copyright: Dan Bartlett




here comes Comet Leonard:

comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) was discovered as a faint smudge in january 2021 when it was out past Mars -- but its orbit takes the giant shedding ice-ball into the inner Solar System, passing near both Earth and Venus in december before swooping around the Sun in early january 2022

comet Leonard was captured mid-november already sporting a green-tinged coma and an extended dust tail

the featured picture was composed from 62 images taken through a moderate-sized telescope -- one set of exposures tracking the comet, while another set tracking the background stars

the exposures were taken from the dark skies above the Eastern Sierras (Mountains), near June Lake in California, USA

after having passed near the Earth in mid-december, the comet now shifted from northern to southern skies ...














































in apod.nasa.gov/apod