Comet PANSTARRS Meets the Andromeda Galaxy — More Amazing Images

Comet PANSTARRS and M31 on April 4, 2013, as seen from Sweden. Credit and copyright: Göran Strand.

More of our readers had success in capturing the awesomeness of seeing Comet PANSTARRS encounter the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in the night sky. Göran Strand sent us this absolutely gorgeous image, taken from 70 km north of Östersund, Sweden — a really dark site with no light pollution. “This photo is a 30 minute exposure through my 300mm/f2.8 lens using my full format Nikon D3s camera,” Göran said. “Besides seeing the comet and the galaxy, I also got to see 4 elks, 2 meteors, 1 bolide and 1 aurora. So all in all, it was a good night!”

That’s for sure!

See more images below of this great meet-up in the skies, and see our earlier post of our readers’ images here.

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Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs and the Andromeda Galaxy: Two Frame Mosaic from New Mexico Skies, April 4, 2013.
Taken from New Mexico Skies at 23:22 UT using an FSQ 10.6-cm and STL11K camera. Credit and copyright: Joseph Brimacombe.

The encounter between Comet PANSTARRS and the Andromeda Galaxy, as seen from Ireland. ‘A difficult image to capture due to low cloud, the low altitude of the target and tracking Issue.’ Image details: Date: 03 Apr 2013, 22:30-23:30
Exposure: 9 x 5min, ISO 1600, F5, 6 x dark frames, 6 x flats frames.
Equipment: Canon 1000D, CG5 Mount, Sigma 70-300mm set at 200mm. Credit and copyright: Brendan Alexander.

Comet PANSTARRS and M31 taken from the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory on April 3, 2013. Credit and copyright: Dave Hancox via Google+.

Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) taken from just outside St Clears, Carmarthenshire, Wales on 29th March 2013 around 9pm. Credit and copyright: Pete Newman.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/