Comet ISON Above Canary Islands

Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) appears next to planet Mercury in the morning twilight, on its way to the Sun, reaching to within a solar diameter of the Sun’s surface (on 2013 Nov. 28). This unusual sungrazer comet is captured here rising over Gran Canaria Island, as seen from the Teide Observatory on Tenerife. Click on the second photo to see an image of the comet in the next morning as it develops a longer tail and sinks deeper in twilight.