#COMET #NISHIMURA AND THE ESKIMO NEBULA: Hyperbolic Comet Nishimura continues to fall into the #solar-system. On Aug. 19th it passed by the Eskimo Nebula. Bill Williams captured the conjunction just above the roof of his house in Florida's Chiefland Astro Village:

"I read about newly-discovered Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) on Spaceweather.com, so I decided to take the challenge of capturing it--although my observatory roof slides east and usually blocks low altitude pre-dawn objects," says Williams. "However, I was thrilled yesterday morning when not only did Comet Nishimura show up but also the Eskimo Nebula just 18 arc minutes away!!"

"Astronomical twilight was already underway when I started observing, so to accelerate the capture I took 2-minute LRGB images (binned 3x3)," he continues. "I do not know what percentage of my telescope actually captured photons from the comet, but we got a nice view of the roof gable, too. A thin ion tail also showed up! You don't know unless you try!"

Comet Nishimura is visiting the inner solar system for the first and last time. When it passes by the sun inside the orbit of Mercury on Sept. 18th, the sun's gravity will slingshot it back into deep space. It is expected to become a naked eye object (3rd magnitude) in mid-September.

https://spaceweather.com/