The incredible astroimager Damian Peach, frequent contributor to Astronomy magazine, has done it again. Here is Damian’s just-taken image of Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), which is poised to be a nice binocular object in the southern sky as it climbs northward during the last days of December.
Damian imaged the comet, now at around 7th magnitude, on December 16, 2014, using a 20-inch CDK with a FLI CCD camera and an LRGB composite exposure.
The comet will climb northward through Eridanus, Taurus, and Aries during January 2015.
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