Astrophotography allows us to admire the beauty of space with details that we often cannot see with the naked eye. Greg Meyer, whose passion is photographing the night sky, boasted an interesting photo in which he managed to capture two very interesting objects.
Meyer took a photo where he captured two objects in one image. They are comet 13P/Olbers and the Messier 64 galaxywhich was also named Black Eye. However, this was not an easy task and required preparation.
The image you see above was taken at Starfront Observatory near Brady, Texas. On August 25, when the sky was dark, Meyer was able to identify the comet 13P/Olbers. It was just 12 degrees above the horizon. The wait was rewarded with an image that is truly spectacular.
Comet 13P/Olbers is currently moving away from Earthalthough it can still be seen using telescopes or binoculars with an aperture of 40-50 mm. The object was closest to our planet on July 20, when it approached to a distance of about 283 million km.
The comet was discovered in 1815 by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers. It is a periodic object with an orbit shorter than 200 years. Its next close approach to Earth will occur only in 2094.
The second object in Meyer’s image is much further away. The Black Eye Galaxy is located in the constellation of Coma Berenices and is separated from it by about 17 million light years. M64 belongs to the Seyfert galaxies and has well-developed spiral arms.
The Black Eye galaxy is quite unusual for one reason. Its central part (with a radius of about 3,000 light-years) rotates in the opposite direction to the galactic disk. This is probably due to a collision with a smaller object of this type in the past.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
