StargazerRon
We in Santa Barbara finally got several days of clear skies after an unusually cloudy September and October.
Earlier this month some Edhat readers were able to get some nice photos showing C/2023 A3 Comet above Santa Barbara, see it here.
Unfortunately I missed that opportunity and now the comet is too high to include a landscape foreground. So I made this image of the comet by itself using a 300mm lens.
If you look below its nucleus you may be able to see its dim “antitail” pointing in the direction of the Sun. It consists of dust particles left behind by the comet. These particles are less affected by the Sun’s radiation pressure and tend to remain roughly in the comet’s orbital plane.
In this photo the comet nucleus is actually moving in the direction of its brighter and larger tail and away from its small faint antitail. Counterintuitive, isn’t it?
Awesome. Where did you take this image from?