Categories: AstrophotosCometsISON

Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses

While many are anticipating seeing Comet ISON, there’s more in the sky these days than just one comet. There are actually four comets now in the skies in the mornings — in addition to ISON, there’s comets 2013 R1 Lovejoy, 2P/Encke and 2012 X1 LINEAR! Unfortunately, none of these are visible to the naked eye — yet anyway.

Here are some great recent images and video of these comet taken by amateur astrophotographers. Above is Comet Lovejoy, just taken by Justin Ng from Singapore . “Comet Lovejoy will share the same part of the sky as Comet ISON this month and it presents a cool astrophotography opportunity for skywatchers and astronomers,” Justin told Universe Today via email. “This image is a result of stacking 9 images together and each image was captured using a 3 inch telescope at 5 minutes exposure time for about an hour before dawn.”

Comet 2P/Encke on October 30, 2013. The coma is partially obscuring the small barred spiral galaxy NGC 4371. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.

A gorgeous shot of Comet Encke by Damian Peach. “The fine narrow ion tail is very nicely defined which has recently developed,” Damian said via email.

Below is Damian’s image of Comet Lovejoy. “Looks as though a disconnection event may have occurred within Lovejoy’s gas tail,” Damian said. “Note the broad fan shaped condensation around half way along the tail.”

Comet 2013 R1 Lovejoy on Oct 31, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.

Here are two great timelapses of Comet ISON! The first is from Justin Ng from Singapore, taken on October 27:

Journey of Comet ISON on 27 October 2013 from Justin Ng Photo on Vimeo.

And this one is from Maik Thomas/NOVAlapse Timelapse Recordings:

Short Animation of Comet ISON – C/2012 S1 from NOVALAPSE Timelapse Recordings on Vimeo.

A recent look at ISON from Efrain Morales with black & white matched with a negative view:

Comet ISON C/2012 S1 On October 31st, 09:17-34 UTC. Coma much denser now around the nucleus and possibly both tails (Ion, Dust) on negative image (lower right) 17 x 1 minute exposures. Credit and copyright: Efrain Morales/Jaicoa Observatory

A nice shot of Comet Lovejoy nearby in the sky to the bright binary star system Procyon in Canus Minor:

Procyon and Comet Lovejoy in the morning sky on October 31, 2013, from Arizona. Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.

If you want to try and see these comets for yourself (good astronomy equipment needed) check out our article on how to see these four morning comets.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

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/

Recent Posts

NASA Restores Communications with Voyager 1

The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft is finally phoning home again. This is much to the…

9 hours ago

Will We Know if TRAPPIST-1e has Life?

The search for extrasolar planets is currently undergoing a seismic shift. With the deployment of…

17 hours ago

Astronaut Food Will Lose Nutrients on Long-Duration Missions. NASA is Working on a Fix

Astronauts on board the International Space Station are often visited by supply ships from Earth…

1 day ago

There Was a Doomed Comet Near the Sun During the Eclipse

A surprise cometary appearance made the April 8th total solar eclipse all the more memorable.

1 day ago

The Ingenuity Team Downloads the Final Data from the Mars Helicopter. The Mission is Over

I really can’t believe that the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars took its maiden voyage in…

2 days ago

Juno Reveals a Giant Lava Lake on Io

NASA's Juno spacecraft came within 1,500 km (930 miles) of the surface of Jupiter’s moon…

3 days ago