The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught

The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught

Image Credit & Copyright:
Robert H. McNaught

Explanation:
Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007,
grew a spectacularly long and filamentary tail.

The magnificent
tail spread across the sky and was visible for several days to
Southern Hemisphere observers just after sunset.

The amazing ion tail showed its greatest extent on long-duration, wide-angle camera exposures.

During some times,
just the tail itself
was visible just above the horizon for many northern observers as well.

Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught),
estimated to have attained a peak brightness of
magnitude -5 (minus five),
was caught by the
comet’s discoverer in the featured image just after sunset in January 2007 from
Siding Spring Observatory in
Australia.

Comet McNaught, the brightest
comet in decades, then
faded as it moved further into southern skies and away from the
Sun and
Earth.

Over the next month,
Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, a candidate for the Great Comet of 2024, should display its most
spectacular tails
visible from the
Earth.