As Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks begins to disappear from Northern Hemisphere skies, attention will undoubtedly turn to some of the other delights 2024 has in store.
Namely, the re-emergence of the planets into favourable positions in the latter half of the year (about time), but also the potential for Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) to be a big hitter come autumn 2024 (fingers crossed).
As one final farewell and last hurrah, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks was due to make an appearance during the April 8 solar eclipse, but also to have a close encounter with the planet Jupiter in the night sky.
Comet photographer José J. Chambó has captured just that: an incredible image showing Pons-Brooks with Jupiter, the Moon and Uranus.
From our perspective on Earth, celestial bodies often appear close together in the sky, and we call these meetings conjunctions.
This conjunction of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, the Moon and the planets was captured by José on 10 April 2024 at 19:57 UTC from Corral de la Muela, Ayora, Valencia Spain.
José says: "Farewelling the northern hemisphere skies, barely above the evening horizon, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks was part of a beautiful planetary conjunction on April 10, 2024, alongside Jupiter, Uranus and the two-day-old waxing crescent Moon.
"The long exposure required to reveal the structural details of the comet's tail meant that the light of the Moon and planets was saturated."
Details
- Camera: Canon EOS 6D
- Lens: Samyang F2.0/135mm
- Mount: Meade LXD-75
- Exposure: 19 min. (1+61x18 sec. at ISO 400)
- Processing: Nebulb
See more of José's work at www.cometografia.es
Are you an astrophotographer? Have you captured an image of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks? Don't forget to send us your images!
