On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia [
http://www.cia.gov/…] by astronomer Gordon Garradd [
http://members.ozem…]. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens [
http://www.zeta.org…], resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view. This gorgeous sky view [
http://encke.jpl.na…] was dominated by the luminous band of our Milky Way Galaxy [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] cut by dramatic, dark interstellar dust clouds [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Along with the bright stars of our Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is visible at the lower left. That night sky was also graced by the long, lovely, bluish tail of Comet Hyakutake [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], which can be seen toward the top of the image, near the bright star Arcturus [
http://www.astro.wi…]. Bright city lights from nearby Tamworth [
http://www.tamworth…] glow along the Northwestern horizon.
Explanation
On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia [
http://www.cia.gov/…] by astronomer Gordon Garradd [
http://members.ozem…]. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens [
http://www.zeta.org…], resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view. This gorgeous sky view [
http://encke.jpl.na…] was dominated by the luminous band of our Milky Way Galaxy [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] cut by dramatic, dark interstellar dust clouds [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Along with the bright stars of our Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is visible at the lower left. That night sky was also graced by the long, lovely, bluish tail of Comet Hyakutake [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], which can be seen toward the top of the image, near the bright star Arcturus [
http://www.astro.wi…]. Bright city lights from nearby Tamworth [
http://www.tamworth…] glow along the Northwestern horizon.
Explanation
