The green nomad rises, with current and future giants
In late March 2016, the green comet 252P LINEAR and its fragment P/2016 BA14 made fifth closest approach to Earth of all comets in history. Even if the comet itself was not such bright to make the people easily enjoy it – due to its nucleus’ diameter – it brought a wonderful composition with the objects around the center of the Milky Way. One of those spectacular views I was able to capture on 2nd April, 2016, staying on the road behind the main entrance building of ESO’s Paranal Observatory. This spot, with perfect conditions, allowed me to capture the green comet like a fuzzy nebula just above the horizon of Chilean Andes. Apart from the comet and diverse colors of airglow, you can see rich structures of interstellar matter in the central Milky Way, many emission nebulae and two planets. The “whiter” one close to the center of the panorama is planetary giant Saturn. Just above it, you can notice two bright orange objects – planet Mars on left and starry giant Antares of the constellation Scorpius. Speaking about giants, one more is not quite on the image yet: If you focus on the horizon, on the left is very well known Cerro Armazones peak, the home of the European-Extremely Large Telescope, the future giant among telescopes. Used Canon 6D Baader IR modified, Canon 50 mm, f2.0, ISO 8000, 13×10 seconds panorama in two rows from tripod.
