Explanation:
Three bright objects satisfied seasoned stargazers of the western sky just after sunset earlier this month.
The most familiar was
the Moon,
seen on the upper left in a crescent
phase.
The rest of the Moon was
faintly visible by sunlight first reflected by
the Earth.
The bright planet
Jupiter,
the largest planet in
the Solar System,
is seen to the upper left.
Most unusual was
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, below the Moon and showing a
stubby dust tail on the right but an
impressive ion
tail extending upwards.
The featured image, a composite of several images taken consecutively at the same location and with the same camera, was taken near the village of
Llers, in
Spain’s
Girona province.
Comet Pons-Brooks passed its closest to
the Sun
last week and is now dimming as it
moves into southern skies
and returns to the outer Solar System.