Comet nearing closest Approach

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE - the Comet is almost at its closest to the Earth and looking very beautiful low on the Northern Horizon as viewed from the Jodrell Plank observatory Visitor Centre. The image is a stack of 9 x 30 sec RAW lights at ISO 1600 taken with the 66mm Altair Lightwave Doublet and Canon 600d DSLR with 0.8x focal reducer and field flattener - mounted on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. Credit: Joel Cairo - CEO at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"The comet will be at its nearest to the Earth this week and consequently moving very quickly across the sky. It's developing tails now stretch over six degrees across the telescopic view. The comet has both a very obvious yellow dust tail and a much fainter and separate bluish ion tail. The fainter tail is an ion tail, formed as ions from the cometary coma are dragged outward by magnetic fields in the solar wind and fluoresce in the sunlight. The tails of comet NEOWISE are reminiscent of the even brighter tails of Hale Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997.
The Jodrell Plank Observatory has gained a new CEO and astrophysicist from Valletta University - Joel Cairo. Everyone here at 'Jodrell Plank' wishes him a happy stay and look forward to his contributions to the astronomical work carried out here on the East Coast. Joel has a considerable reputation in the practice of astro-science and falconry". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.