There are not three, four or five, but six different night sky phenomena visible in this amazing astrophoto taken by Petr Horálek, European Southern Observatory’s photo ambassador.
The image was captured earlier in January 2015, during a visit to La Silla Observatory, just on the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert. Let’s count together! We can see:
Comet Lovejoy, glowing green in the centre of the image
The Pleiades above and to the right of the comet
California Nebula, a red arc of gas to the right of Lovejoy
A meteor on the left of Comet Lovejoy
The hazy pool of green light collecting along the horizon
A thin shroud of low altitude clouds below the observatory
The Panamericana Highway and the telescopes of La Silla are the grateful audience for this celestial performance. I wish I were there, so I knew it was definitely real. [P. Horálek/ESO]
