                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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                                2024 August 1

                      Comet Olbers over Kunetice Castle
   Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava

   Explanation: A visitor to the inner solar system every 70 years or so
   Comet 13P/Olbers reached its most recent perihelion, or closest
   approach to the Sun, on June 30 2024. Now on a return voyage to the
   distant Oort cloud the Halley-type comet is recorded here sweeping
   through northern summer night skies over historic Kunetice Castle,
   Czech Republic. Along with a broad dust tail, and brighter coma, this
   comet's long ion tail buffeted by storms and winds from the Sun, is
   revealed in the composite of tracked exposures for comet and sky, and
   fixed exposures for foreground landscape recorded on July 28. The comet
   is about 16 light-minutes beyond the castle and seen against faint
   background stars below the northern constellation Ursa Major. The
   hilltop castle dates to the 15th century, while Heinrich Olbers
   discovered the comet in 1815. Captured here low in northwestern skies
   just after sunset Comet Olbers, for now, offers skywatchers on planet
   Earth rewarding telescopic and binocular views. Comet 13P/Olbers next
   perihelion passage will be in 2094.

                   Tomorrow's picture: martian chronicles
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