Comet C/2017 T2 makes quite the photo op as it passes by Galaxies Messier M81 and M82 in the night sky this past Sunday night, May 24, 2020, in this image taken at Grand Mesa Observatory, www.grandmesaobservatory.com. Captured and processed by Terry Hancock and Tom Masterson.

Discovered on Oct. 2, 2017 by the PanSTARRS sky survey, this comet has put on quite the show this year. Here it's seen passing about one and a half degrees away from Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82). At about 12 million light-years distant, these galaxies would take a bit longer to get to than the 13.79 light-minutes it would take you to get from Earth to C/2017 T2. Next month around June 16, C/2017 T2 will make another close rendezvous in our night sky with another Galaxy, M109, coming within a degree of it. Then, on June 23, it'll be less than one degree from Galaxy M106. It is now visible in small telescopes or decent binoculars, a nice treat to those with dark and clear skies in the Northern Hemisphere!

A great write-up on Comet C/2017 T2 can be found on Universe Today at https://www.universetoday.com/144774/catch-comet-t2-panstarrs-this-spring/

A real time tracker of Comet C/2017 T2 can be found here: https://theskylive.com/c2017t2-info

Technical Info:
Captured from Grand Mesa Observatory in Western Colorado on the May 24 2020 using the QHY367 Pro C Full Frame One Shot color CMOS camera on one of the Twin Takahashi E-180 Astrographs “System 4a”
Total Integration time: 2.1 hours

Image details
Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colo.
38.963365, -108.237225
Dates of capture: May 24, 10:49pm - May 25, 1:02am
Color RGGB 125 min, 25 x 300 sec
Camera: QHY367 Pro C Color CMOS
Gain 2850, Offset 76
Calibrated with flat, Dark & Bias
Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph
Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6
Pre Processed in Pixinsight and Deep Sky Stacker
Post Processed in Photoshop CC