Comet Lovejoy

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Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was a spectacular comet event that stretched from late 2014 until well into 2015! Making its way in Lepus in Dec. 2014  all the way to Cassiopeia by March 2015, the comet visited several notable deep-sky objects including M79, M76 and Sh2-187. The detailed blue ion tail was most fascinating in mid-January 2015 showing nightly morphologic changes as seen in the attached gif animation comparing Jan. 19 to Jan. 20. An attached inverted image from Jan. 20, 2015 shows the tails intricacies including a disconnect event. I enjoyed imaging with the 6-inch AP refractor from Mark Hunt’s observatory (pre-Vixen refractor) in mid-January 2015! Astro Art was produced using the Jan. 19, 2015 LRGB image and was included in the 2023 Astro Art Calendar. This comet will not reappear in our skies for 8,000 years. Glad I made the most of this visit!