Hartley 2 Comet And The Double Cluster
Comet Hartley 2 paid a visit to one of the treats of the northern skies in early October 2010 when it passed very close to the double cluster. The double cluster is visible in the constellation of Perseus to the naked eye and is composed of a pair open clusters shown here where Ngc884 is to the left and Ngc869 to the right in this 2 degree area of the sky with north at the top. The comet glowed green and of course can be seen in the lower right. Also shown is 'dark nebula' B201 that shows up as a lack of stars in an area about the size of one of the clusters that is to the middle right in this image. This was a very quick picture taken at an opportunistic shot especially since the clouds had only just cleared up enough a short while before this picture was taken.
Copyright Mark E. Johnston Creative Commons license by-nc-nd