Comet Lovejoy was captured last week passing well in front of spiral galaxy M63.
Discovered only three months ago and currently near its maximum
brightness,
Comet Lovejoy can be seen near the
Big Dipper from dark northerly locations
before dawn with the unaided eye.
An unexpected rival to
Comet ISON,
C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy),
pictured above, is currently sporting a large green coma and a beautifully textured
ion tail.
Comet Lovejoy is now headed back to the outer
Solar System but should remain a
good site in
binoculars
for another few weeks.
Conversely, spiral galaxy
M63, lies far in the distance and is
expected to
remain stationary
on the sky and hold its relative
brightness for at least the next few million years.
This picture shows a roll cloud entering Ranfjord
in northern Norway, near Mo i Rana. Strong winds and lashing rains
accompanied its arrival. After only an hour, it was gone and sunny
weather returned. Roll clouds are low, tube-shaped clouds that tumble
about their horizontal axis and are uncoupled from their parent cumulonimbus cloud. They're usually found just behind the gust front of an approaching storm.
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