Chasing an Iceball ᐉ

Turn on the speaker for this timelapse video clip by the Austrian TWAN photographer Christoph Malin who did a winter expedition to the top of a mountain in Tyrol, the Austrian Alps, to catch Comet PanStarrs (C/2011 L4) above clouds, when this wandering snowball was visiting the inner Solar System in March 2013. from the photographer: “It was a night with -25° C and gusty winds up to 45 km/h at the 3050-meter high Gaislachkogel Mountain, Oetztal, Austria. The imaging expedition organized in cooperation with the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Weather Service… Although the camera lenses were equipped with heaters against frost there remained technical challenges. The Live view of two cameras failed due to the temperature. After several hundred shots of the starry night sky the imaging ended after midnight with a night downhill skiing adventure. A great experience for me and astrophysics and photographer Wolfgang Kausch. What a view, what a great moment! I will never forget the sight of this cosmic neighbor sinking into the clouds at the horizon.” Read more about this imaging adventure here.