Extract from ABC News
Comet Leonard is wowing stargazers across Australia, putting on a cracker of a show to brighten the end of the year.
Amateur astronomer and astrophotographer Michael Mattiazzo, captured a stunning image of the comet from Swan Hill, Victoria last night.
"It's blown me away," Mr Mattiazzo said.
The stunning photo — featured above — was taken using a camera attached to a telescope.
It shows the comet just after a sudden eruption of gas and ice from the head of the comet, making it appear brighter and highlighting its dust and blue ionised gas tails.
"Something has occurred on the nucleus and it basically exploded," Mr Mattiazzo said.
"The eruption releases huge volumes of dust which produces the [dome around the head of the comet], and then you also see lovely filaments of ionised gas which stream away from the Sun and act like a solar windsock."
"This [blue] ion tail will grow over the next couple of nights," he said.
The comet is now higher in the sky, about 15 to 20 degrees above the west-south-west horizon, between one-and-a-half to two hours after sunset depending on where you live in Australia (twilight lasts longer the further south you are).
Mr Mattiazzo said Comet Leonard currently looks like a "fuzzy star-like object" with the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will reveal a lovely tail developing.
Here are some more views captured from locations around Australia and New Zealand last night.
Tom Harradine captured his image from Brisbane.
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