EarthSky Community Photos

Submit your photo here. Comment or upvote on photo pages. Search via photographers' names. More improvements coming! To help, please donate.

Rui Santos
Leiria, Portugal
03/13/2024
08:00 pm

Equipment Details:

ZWO Seestar S50

Post-processing Details:

Lightroom, Photoshop, AIdenoise, back and forth with luminosity masks

Image Details:

Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks (tap for full image)

Currently this periodic comet is already low on the horizon for my latitude, so yesterday, at dusk, I looked up to the sky, that was finally clear after lots of cloudy nights, and decided to go to the National Forest of Leiria (or what remains of it) to take this photograph with a total exposure time of 20 minutes. A unique opportunity to glimpse this orbital comet, as after this season it will only be visible to our planet again in 71 years... I doubt I'll last that long 😂

A comet is a small, icy body of the Solar System that heats up and begins to release gases when it passes close to the Sun. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and solar wind plasma acting on the nucleus of the comet.
During the capture, I felt amazed by the sight of the comet, its tail stretching majestically across the sky. It's a scene that seems to transcend time and space, and it's extraordinary that technology allows us to witness these cosmic events of epic proportions.

Hope you like it. Enjoy!