Behold: C/1861 G1, or comet Thatcher – part of Earth’s annual Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked before dawn yesterday. To wit:
In crisp, clear and moonless predawn skies over Brown County, Indiana this streak of vaporising comet dust briefly shared a telephoto field of view with stars and nebulae along the Milky Way. Alpha star of the constellation Cygnus, Deneb lies near the bright meteor’s path along with the region’s dark interstellar clouds of dust and the recognizable glow of the North America nebula (NGC 7000). The meteor’s streak points back to the shower’s radiant, its apparent point of origin on the sky. That would be in the constellation Lyra, near bright star Vega and off the top edge of the frame.
(Image: Zolt Levay)
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