Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS and So Many Galaxies
On Sunday morning, 30 November 2025, my colleague Josef Kujal and I traveled for clear skies close to Malá Úpa of the Czech Republic (in the Giant Mountains), so we reached the popular interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. In this image, taken with a 200mm telephoto lens for 49 minutes of total integration time, the faint tail and antitail of the comet popped out, as well as many galaxies located in the Virgo constellation. I was able to identify at least 37 of them. While the comet is about 10 magnitude and 287 million kilometers distant, the faintest galaxies in the image are less than 14,5 magnitude bright and hundreds of millions of light-years away. And while the comet is certainly not an alien ship, who might know how many planets with life (or even civilisations) can be located in the distant galaxies captured in the same view. Used Nikon Z6III, Tamron 70-200mm/200mm, f2.8, ISO 2500, 98x30s, tracked on Vixen Polarie U.
Full credit: Petr Horálek/Institute of Physics in Opava, Josef Kujal/Astronomy Society Hradec Králové.
Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS and So Many Galaxies – Annotated
