Comet Lovejoy before a
Globular Star Cluster
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lovejoy is
now becoming visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere. Use the links
below to find its location in and around the constellation Orion.
Comet Lovejoy has become visible to the unaided eye. To see
the comet, just go outside an hour or so after sunset and look for a fuzzy patch to the right of Orion's
belt.
Binoculars and a star chart may help. Pictured here, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was captured passing nearly in front
of M79, the globular star cluster visible as the
bright spot slightly above and to the left of the comet's green-hued coma.
The nucleus of Comet Lovejoy is a giant dirty iceberg that
is shedding gas into a long and intricate ion tail, extending across the image,
as it nears the Sun.
The comet is expected to become even easier to spot for northern observers during
January, as it is rises earlier and, hopefully, continues to brighten.
