Explanation:
Once a bright apparition in the
southern hemisphere dawn
Comet Lovejoy
is fading, but its long tail still stretches
across
skies near the south celestial pole.
Captured on the morning of December 30th, the comet
appears near edge of this little planet as well.
Of course, the little planet is actually planet Earth and the image was
created from a 12 frame mosaic used to construct a
spherical
panorama.
The type of
stereographic
projection used to map the image pixels
is centered directly below the camera and
is known as the
little
planet projection.
Stars surrounding this little planet were above the photographer's
cloudy horizon near the Bay of Islands on the Great Ocean Road in
southern Victoria, Australia.
Running
alongside the Milky Way
the comet can be identified, with other
celestial highlights, by putting your cursor over the picture.
Very bright stars Canopus and Sirius
are right of the little planet.
