Introducing Comet Leonard
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 will take the
giant shedding ice-ball into the
inner Solar System, passing near both
Earth and Venus in December before it
swoops around the Sun in early January 2022.
Although comets are notoriously
hard to predict, some estimations have
Comet Leonard brightening to become visible to the
unaided eye in December.
Comet Leonard was captured just over a week ago
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 Sierra Mountains,
near June Lake in
California,
USA.
Soon after passing near the Earth in mid-December, the comet will shift from northern to southern skies.