APOD: Comet Wirtanen Passes by the Earth (2018 Dec 16)

[APOD Robot]

Comet Wirtanen Passes by the Earth

Explanation: Today Comet Wirtanen passes by the Earth. The kilometer-sized dirty snowball orbits the Sun every 5.4 years, ranging as far out as Jupiter and as close in as the Earth. Today Comet 46P/Wirtanen passes within only 31 lunar distances to the Earth, the closest approach in 70 years. If you know where to look (Taurus), you can see the comet through binoculars as an unusual blue smudge. Pictured a week ago, Comet Wirtanen was photographed in the sky beyond an old abandoned church in Skagen, Denmark. The image composite also captures the astrophotographer. After today, the comet will begin to fade as it recedes from the Earth and the Sun.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[Boomer12k]

Awesome...too bad tonight was cloudy and raining... sigh...

:---[===] *

[Ann]

Nice picture.

I like the church. I think it is the sand-covered church in Denmark:

Click to view full size image

The sand-covered church. Looks much like the APOD church.
Credit: Malene Thyssen, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene

Wikipedia wrote:

The Sand-Covered Church (Danish: Den Tilsandede Kirke, also translated as The Buried Church, and also known as Old Skagen Church) is the name given to a late 14th-century church dedicated to Saint Lawrence of Rome. It was a brick church of considerable size, located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southwest of the town centre of Skagen, Denmark. During the last half of the 18th century the church was partially buried by sand from nearby dunes; the congregation had to dig out the entrance each time a service was to be held. The struggle to keep the church free of sand lasted until 1795, when it was abandoned.[1][2] The church was demolished, leaving the tower with crow-stepped gable as the only part of the original structure still standing.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Awesome...too bad tonight was cloudy and raining... sigh...

Last night and tonight, in the same binocular field as the Pleiades. Pretty cool looking. Hope you have better weather today.