As dawn approached on May 8, astronomer Stefan Seip carefully watched Fragment C of broken comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 approach M57 - the Ring Nebula, and faint spiral galaxy IC 1296.
Of course, even though the trio seemed to come close together in a truly cosmic photo opportunity, the comet is in the inner part of our solar system, a mere 0.5 light-minutes or so from Seip's telescope located near Stuttgart, Germany, planet Earth.
The Ring Nebula (upper right) is more like 2,000 light-years distant, well within our own Milky Way Galaxy.
At a distance of 200 million light-years, IC 1296 (between comet and ring) is beyond even the Milky Way's boundaries.
Because the comet is so close, it appears to move relatively rapidly against the distant stars.
