© Wayne EnglandOut-of-this world beauty: An amazing comet streaks over a swamp in South Australia. It was captured by photographer Wayne England who was lying in wait
Caught on camera over a swamp in Australia the stunning image shows the trail of the Comet Lovejoy as it passed close to Earth.
Lying in wait in the darkness in Poocher Swamp Game Reserve near Adelaide, was photographer Wayne England who took this amazing snap.
As his picture shows the darkness of the swamp and the reflection of the water made the perfect backdrop to reflect the comet zooming across the sky.
Mr England, 40, who is a member of the Astronomical Society of South Australia, said he first heard about the comet travelling close to Earth in December and had several nights to try and catch a glimpse at 4am in the morning on Christmas Eve.
He said: 'Each night I travelled 6miles out of the town to my favourite site, Poocher Swamp Game Reserve because of the dark sky, water and reflections of the stars in them water.
'The comet looked amazing when I first saw it on the morning of Christmas Eve. It was so bright and large in the pre-dawn sky.
© Wayne EnglandComet Lovejoy blazes a trail and manages to compete with a sky full of stars. That streak of light to the right appears to be a separate fireball entering the atmosphere
'It had two tails, one curving slightly away from the other at the top. It was like a beacon or a laser shooting up into the sky.
'I'm so glad I saw it when it was so bright and on subsequent nights because it faded fast over several days.
'This was of course the best time to take photos of it and because it was moving relatively fast - you could see the amount it had moved each night.'
Wayne used a Nikon D7000 with a Tokina 12-24mm lens with settings of ISO 3200 or 6400, 20-30secs exposure at f/4.
He said: 'I like the wide angle this lens produces and with it I often try to get reflections of the stars in the water, which to create a good effect can only be done with wider angle lenses.
'The comet was initially visible just before sunrise but by the New Year it was visible from about 1am but had faded considerably.
© Wayne EnglandColour: A full range of hues can be seen across the bright night sky as the comet passes close to Earth
Centauri A and Centauri B orbit each other at something like 6 AU, 6X far apart as we are from our sun. So far, there has been no identified Earth-like body in orbit but they have not ruled out anything smaller than a 3x Earth-like planet. Proxima Centauri, that red dwarf with a bad temper that is half a light year closer to us is another story. And science has not been able to even identify if it is gravitationally bound to the twin Centauri suns.
So, is it the 'star' our suspect planet/starbit/neutron bitsy that has been conjectured to invade Sol's system into Pluto and back out through the Ort cloud is orbiting?