APOD: Comet Castle (2013 Mar 22)

[APOD Robot]

Comet Castle

Explanation: The broad dust tail of Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) has become a familiar sight for many northern hemisphere comet watchers, as the comet fades but rises higher above the western horizon after sunset. This view of the popular comet may seem a little fantastic, though. Sweeping away from the Sun and trailing behind the comet's orbit, the curving dust tail also seems to stream away from a shining mountaintop castle. Comet Castle might be an appropriate name in this scene, but its traditional name is Castle Hohenzollern. Taken on March 15 with an extreme telephoto lens, the Comet Castle image was captured in exceptionally clear skies about 80 kilometers away from Stuttgart, Germany.

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[Beyond]

INCOMEING!! DUCK!!

[Moonlady]

A magic picture, I love it!

[saturno2]

The Comet and the Castle
Very good image
A good topic for a book of fiction

[emc]

Great picture!
I wonder if they keep horses at the castle.

[fausto.lubatti]

Excellent shot!

[MargaritaMc]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1868877? ... op_version
Hale-Bopp comet above Plumlov castle in March 1997

Click to view full size image

http://500px.com/photo/21510545
Unnamed comet (according to caption by the photographer - is it actually a meteor?) and the Moon over Castle Imola.

Just for interest!
Margarita

[ColCampbell]

The perspective makes it appear as if the comet is aimed at Schloss Hohenzollern. As an aside, I have visited that castle many, many years ago. It is magnificent, especially the approach as it sits on a hilltop that is isolated in a rolling countryside making it visible for miles.

[Chris Peterson]

Click to view full size image

http://500px.com/photo/21510545
Unnamed comet (according to caption by the photographer - is it actually a meteor?) and the Moon over Castle Imola.

There are no comets and no meteors in that image.

We could be seeing a spotlight or laser from the ground, but it also could be a contrail, given the sort of clouds I see around the Moon. My vote is on a ground-based light source, though.

[Case]

The Earth Science Picture of the Day for March 22 also has a nice zoomed-in image with comet Panstarrs and a jet contrail:
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/03/comet ... trail.html

[bystander]

The Earth Science Picture of the Day for March 22 also has a nice zoomed-in image with comet Panstarrs and a jet contrail:
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/03/comet ... trail.html

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?p=195632#p195632

[Boomer12k]

Nice picture. Gotta get me a more professional camera that can take longer exposures.

:---[===] *

[LocalColor]

Very nice photo Stefan Seip! We are having cloudy skies (and snow.)

[Chris Peterson]

Nice picture. Gotta get me a more professional camera that can take longer exposures.

The majority of these images are made with exposures of just a few seconds at most. Any longer requires active tracking. The best pictures are made with cameras having low readout noise- newer DSLRs, especially those with large pixels. A large aperture telephoto lens is also helpful.

[askywok]

May it be, the explaining text under the grandiose picture of the day (from Stefan Seip) is not correctly in a statement of the comets tail?: 

"Sweeping away from the Sun and "trailing behind the comet's orbit", the curving dust tail also seems to stream away from a shining mountaintop castle." 

I think the dust trail of comet PanSTARRS is in nearly same direction as it moves away from our solar system, thus more prograding directed? The pictured comet seems to move down, but he is moving up! 
What is right? Even yesterday I have discussed with my wife about this phenomenon, shall I be on the false road?

[fred_76]

Nice picture. Gotta get me a more professional camera that can take longer exposures.

The majority of these images are made with exposures of just a few seconds at most. Any longer requires active tracking. The best pictures are made with cameras having low readout noise- newer DSLRs, especially those with large pixels. A large aperture telephoto lens is also helpful.

Hi! This is not really necessary. Or almost.

I have shown here a 1 min exposure time picture :
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 00#p195769

This picture doesn't show any star trail AND the landscape is not blurred. But this is a composition of 15 pics of 4 seconds each and a long time to process them with a dedicated astronomy software (Iris) and a photo editor.

As a result you not only get a picture without trailing stars, but an almost noise-less background.

Fred
www.sahavre.fr

[anniekapn4040]

Lovely. At the site, the photo of entry with three or four lights was a difference. Annie

[Anthony Barreiro]

Lovely picture. The crepuscular rays behind the castle are a nice touch. It's too bad Walt Disney is dead, he would have loved this!

[Chris Peterson]

Lovely picture. The crepuscular rays behind the castle are a nice touch. It's too bad Walt Disney is dead, he would have loved this!

They are not crepuscular rays, but rather come from spotlights on the ground.

[Anthony Barreiro]

Lovely picture. The crepuscular rays behind the castle are a nice touch. It's too bad Walt Disney is dead, he would have loved this!

They are not crepuscular rays, but rather come from spotlights on the ground.

Even better. The spirit of Walt lives on!