Nishimura’s long goodbye

José J. Chambó, taken from Altos de Salomón, Valencia, Spain

Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) is sporting an extremely long tail — over 7° — captured here at dawn on Saturday, Sept. 9 from the Sierra de Enguera mountains outside of Valencia. The photographer reports: “Although imperceptible to the naked eye and only observable the brightest part with binoculars, the photograph manages to capture the narrow, curved ionic tail, showing filament-like details streaming towards the left side of the main current. A few minutes later, dense fog covered the entire summit, and I had to bid farewell to comet Nishimura until 435 years from now.” Now’s your last chance to see Nishimura — learn how to spot it here.