Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is still putting on a show. Unfortunately, at the time this imager captured it, the comet glowed at magnitude 9.3, much too faint to spot with the naked eye. Comet PANSTARRS is heading toward the solar system’s outer reaches. On the date of this image, it was 1.81 astronomical units from the Sun. An astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). Bernhard Hubl took captured image using a 12-inch Newtonian reflector and an SBIG ST-2000XM CCD camera. He took an LRGB image with exposures of 20, 18, 18, and 18 minutes, respectively, on May 28, 2013, between 20h55m UT and 22h30m UT, from Nussbach, Austria.
Bernhard Hubl