APOD: Comet Leonard from Space (2021 Dec 15)

[APOD Robot]

Comet Leonard from Space

Explanation: What does Comet Leonard look like from space? Today's featured image from Origin.Space's Yangwang-1 space telescope shows not only the currently bright comet -- but several other space delights as well. Taken in optical and ultraviolet light, C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is visible with an extended tail near the image center as it appeared five days ago. The Earth is visible on the lower right, while layers of the Earth's atmosphere glow diagonally from the lower left to the upper right. The trails of two satellites can be seen in front of a myriad of distant stars that dot the background on the upper left. The faint bands of light running diagonally from the lower right to the upper left are auroras. Finally, the image also caught a meteor streaking just below the airglow. To see Comet Leonard yourself from the Earth's surface during the next few days, look toward the western horizon just after sunset or just before sunrise.

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[Locutus76]

There seems to be another sattelite visible on the upper right

[orin stepanek]

LeonardSpace_Yangwang1_1960.jpg

Almost a Christmas Comet! Westward leading!
My eyes can't spot things that small; so thanks for APOD!

smiling-cat-for-web.jpg

Pretty Kitty!

[Sa Ji Tario]

So anyone! If I climb the tree on the highest hill, I would see the same thing! (a Lepero)

[osgilbert]

I would love it if the rollover displaying the annotations was activated when my cursor was ON the image, so that the annotations could be included in a saved JPG, rather than activated only when OFF the image.

[Sa Ji Tario]

If you wish, you can make a "screenshot", save it and have it when you like

[Chris Peterson]

I would love it if the rollover displaying the annotations was activated when my cursor was ON the image, so that the annotations could be included in a saved JPG, rather than activated only when OFF the image.

If you look at the page source you can see the underlying names for both files. The annotated version is at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2112/L ... otated.jpg
_

Click to view full size image

[Astronymus]

There seems to be another sattelite visible on the upper right

Also a weak streak on the left. And something in the right lower corner.

[johnnydeep]

There seems to be another sattelite visible on the upper right

Also a weak streak on the left. And something in the right lower corner.

I see them all but your additional “weak streak on the left”. Mind pointing it out with a pic?

[Sa Ji Tario]

Enlarge the image and you will see it

[johnnydeep]

Enlarge the image and you will see it

I did that of course, but I still didn't see it. Is you divide the image into a 3 by 3 grid of squares, which one is it in? With the squares numbered like so:

Code: Select all

123
456
789

[alter-ego]

Enlarge the image and you will see it

I did that of course, but I still didn't see it. Is you divide the image into a 3 by 3 grid of squares, which one is it in? With the squares numbered like so:

Code: Select all

123
456
789

Square 1
Two meteors are in that square. The faint one is to the left and up (~30° wrt the brighter one)

[johnnydeep]

Enlarge the image and you will see it

I did that of course, but I still didn't see it. Is you divide the image into a 3 by 3 grid of squares, which one is it in? With the squares numbered like so:

Code: Select all

123
456
789

Square 1
Two meteors are in that square. The faint one is to the left and up (~30° wrt the brighter one)

With that hint I was able to find one likely meteor in square 1, and a possible second one, but I'm not sure if they're the same ones you're referring to. Also, inverting the colors always seems to help me find things better. So, in the blowup of a part of square 1 below, the red circle shows the satellite and the two green circles show my candidate meteors:

satelllite and meteors.png

...oh, and I also spelled satellite correctly, unlike the annotated image

[Chris Peterson]

I did that of course, but I still didn't see it. Is you divide the image into a 3 by 3 grid of squares, which one is it in? With the squares numbered like so:

Code: Select all

123
456
789

Square 1
Two meteors are in that square. The faint one is to the left and up (~30° wrt the brighter one)

With that hint I was able to find one likely meteor in square 1, and a possible second one, but I'm not sure if they're the same ones you're referring to. Also, inverting the colors always seems to help me find things better. So, in the blowup of a part of square 1 below, the red circle shows the satellite and the two green circles show my candidate meteors:


satelllite and meteors.png


...oh, and I also spelled satellite correctly, unlike the annotated image :)

It's pretty unlikely that there would be more than one meteor in an image like this (indeed, having even one is unlikely). All the other streaks are probably either satellites or cosmic ray hits.

[johnnydeep]

Square 1
Two meteors are in that square. The faint one is to the left and up (~30° wrt the brighter one)

With that hint I was able to find one likely meteor in square 1, and a possible second one, but I'm not sure if they're the same ones you're referring to. Also, inverting the colors always seems to help me find things better. So, in the blowup of a part of square 1 below, the red circle shows the satellite and the two green circles show my candidate meteors:

satellite and meteors.png

...oh, and I also spelled satellite correctly, unlike the annotated image

It's pretty unlikely that there would be more than one meteor in an image like this (indeed, having even one is unlikely). All the other streaks are probably either satellites or cosmic ray hits.

Chris, always the voice of reason. Would there be any particular reason why the upper satellite streak (that would be the one in the red circle in my blow-up) appears dotted and not continuous like all the other streaks?

[Chris Peterson]

With that hint I was able to find one likely meteor in square 1, and a possible second one, but I'm not sure if they're the same ones you're referring to. Also, inverting the colors always seems to help me find things better. So, in the blowup of a part of square 1 below, the red circle shows the satellite and the two green circles show my candidate meteors:

satellite and meteors.png

...oh, and I also spelled satellite correctly, unlike the annotated image :)

It's pretty unlikely that there would be more than one meteor in an image like this (indeed, having even one is unlikely). All the other streaks are probably either satellites or cosmic ray hits.

Chris, always the voice of reason. Would there be any particular reason why the upper satellite streak (that would be the one in the red circle in my blow-up) appears dotted and not continuous like all the other streaks?

Some satellites spin, either by design or by failure. Many of those appear to pulsate.

[johnnydeep]

It's pretty unlikely that there would be more than one meteor in an image like this (indeed, having even one is unlikely). All the other streaks are probably either satellites or cosmic ray hits.

Chris, always the voice of reason. Would there be any particular reason why the upper satellite streak (that would be the one in the red circle in my blow-up) appears dotted and not continuous like all the other streaks?

Some satellites spin, either by design or by failure. Many of those appear to pulsate.

Thanks - makes sense, and very reasonable.

[Astronymus]

There seems to be another sattelite visible on the upper right

Also a weak streak on the left. And something in the right lower corner.

I see them all but your additional “weak streak on the left”. Mind pointing it out with a pic?

Sure.

[johnnydeep]

Also a weak streak on the left. And something in the right lower corner.

I see them all but your additional “weak streak on the left”. Mind pointing it out with a pic?

Sure.

I did eventually find that streak (see my earlier post) and yet another even fainter one to the above left right of that one. But they're probably not meteors as Chris pointed out.

[Chris Peterson]

I did eventually find that streak (see my earlier post) and yet another even fainter one to the above left of that one. But they're probably not meteors as Chris pointed out.

Also worth keeping in mind, the airglow layer is somewhat higher than 100 km, and meteors are unlikely to be visible higher than that.