August 22, 2014
The cosmos is full of spectacular things: ringed planets, exploding suns, rivers of stars across the night.
Comet Jacques, Heart and Soul
Birthday · August 22, 2014
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APOD published August 22, 2014. Credit: Dominique Dierick. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
On July 13th, a good place to watch Comet Jacques was from Venus. Then, the recently discovered visitor (C/2014 E2) to the inner solar system passed within about 14.5 million kilometers of our sister planet. But the outbound comet will pass only 84 million kilometers from our fair planet on August 28 and is already a fine target for telescopes and binoculars. Two days ago Jacques' greenish coma and straight and narrow ion tail were captured in this telescopic snapshot, a single 2 minute long exposure with a modified digital camera. The comet is flanked by IC 1805 and IC 1848, also known as Cassiopeia's Heart and Soul Nebulae. If you're stuck on planet Earth this weekend you can hunt for Comet Jacques in evening skies, or spot a Venus, Jupiter, crescent Moon triangle before the dawn.
Image credit: Dominique Dierick