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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                  2023 October 20   
      
                               Galaxies and a Comet   
                      Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett   
      
      Explanation: Galaxies abound in this sharp telescopic image recorded on   
      October 12 in dark skies over June Lake, California. The celestial   
      scene spans nearly 2 degrees within the boundaries of the well-trained   
      northern constellation Canes Venatici. Prominent at the upper left 23.5   
      million light-years distant is big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 4258,   
      known to some as Messier 106. Eye-catching edge-on spiral NGC 4217 is   
      above and right of center about 60 million light-years away. Just   
      passing through the pretty field of view is comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon,   
      discovered last April in image data from the Mount Lemmon Survey. Here   
      the comet sports more of a lime green coma though, along with a faint,   
      narrow ion tail stretching toward the top of the frame. This visitor to   
      the inner Solar System is presently less than 7 light-minutes away and   
      still difficult to spot with binoculars, but it's growing brighter.   
      Comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon will reach perihelion, its closest point to the   
      Sun, on October 29 and perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on   
      November 10 as it transitions from morning to evening northern skies.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: observe the Moon   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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