A team of astronomers used Suprime-Cam, Subaru Telescope’s wide-field, prime-focus camera, to capture an image of the intricate flow of Comet Lovejoy’s (C/2013 R1) ion tail. The instrument’s combination of a wide field of view and high spatial resolution provides a clear delineation of the complex, wiggling streams in the comet’s tail. At the time of this observation, at around 5:30 am on December 3, 2013 (Hawaii Standard Time), Comet Lovejoy was 50 million miles (80 million km) distant from Earth and 80 million miles (130 million km) away from the Sun.

Link

• Subaru Telescope’s Image Captures the Intricacy of Comet Lovejoy’s Tail [Subaru Telescope]
• An Image of Comet Lovejoy by MITSuME [Okayama Astrophysical Observatory] (Japanese)
• Images and Movies of Ishigaki-jima Astronomical Observatory (Comet) [Ishigaki-jima Astronomical Observatory] (Japanese)