Two comets – October 5, 2018

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One of the following two images shows an object that might become visible to the naked eye later this year. That object is the periodic comet 46P/Wirtanen. For now, the comet is heading south, and it is still rather faint, especially when observed from the northern hemisphere, as it is close to the horizon.

The second image shows another periodic comet, 64P, which has a similar magnitude these days. Due to the very different positions in the sky, (with 64P gliding in Andromeda, close to the zenith), 64P looks a bit brighter and larger compared to 46P, but they are actually similar in magnitude. Both comets show elongated comas.

 

46P.jpg

64P.jpg

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