Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]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
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                            Galaxies and a Comet
                Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Dan Bartlett

   Explanation: [5]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,
   [6]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 [7]C/2023 H2 Lemmon,
   discovered last April in image data from the [8]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
   [9]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. [10]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
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([25]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [26]Specific rights apply.
              [27]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [28]ASD at [29]NASA / [30]GSFC,
                         [31]NASA Science Activation
                           & [32]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2310/C2023H2LemmonGalaxies.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/h2ologg/
   5. https://www.astrobin.com/x6l4sy/B/
   6. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200501.html
   7. http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2023H2
   8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lemmon_Survey
   9. https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/
  10. https://theskylive.com/c2023h2-info
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231019.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=231020
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231021.html
  22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  28. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/
  30. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  31. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  32. http://www.mtu.edu/