Comet & the Dish

A single-exposure image of Comet PanSTARRS C/2014 Q1 and the crescent moon above the 64-metre Parkes radio telescope in Australia, also known as “The Dish”. In July 2015 the comet brightened quickly and unexpectedly for a few nights after closest approach to the sun. Being one of the world’s most productive observatories, besides radio astronomy research, the 64-metre antenna participates in the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).