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On 19 February, comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova passed within close visual proximity to NGC 4631, the whale galaxy and NGC 4656, (the hockey stick galaxy?). The comet has entered in to the constellation of Canes Venatici, and area of sky filled with a ‘hive’ of galaxies.
Now on its outward journey, the comet has changed slightly in appearance. The beautiful image above was taken by Rolando Ligustri via Itelescope.net (New Mexico) and it shows the green halo that we are all familiar with but with a hint of a tail-like shape to the halo. Now slightly fainter than magnitude 8, there are no signs of any outbursts.
Finder charts for the comet 45p’s current location can be found here.
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