Comet Pan-STARRS makes a modest appearance

The comet Pan-STARRS was discovered in June, 2011, by operators of the Pan-STARRS telescope located near the summit of Haleakala, on the island of Maui in Hawaii.  Pan-STARRS -- the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System -- is an innovative design for a wide-field imaging facility developed at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

The combination of relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras results in an economical observing system that can observe the entire available sky several times each month.

The prototype single-mirror telescope PS1 is now operational on Mount Haleakala; its scientific research program is being undertaken by the PS1 Science Consortium - a collaboration between ten research organizations in four countries,

A major goal of Pan-STARRS is to discover and characterize Earth-approaching objects, both asteroids & comets, that might pose a danger to our planet.

 I took this picture on March 12, 2013 in Draper, Utah.  (Click on each photo to see entire view, including the New Moon.)  The photo above has not been digitally altered.  The photo below has been cropped and photo-shopped to enhance contrast and brightness.

Suzanne asked me to explain the lighting on the moon: The bright crescent sliver is the only part of the moon which we can see that is illuminated by the sun. The rest of the sun-lit moon faces away from Earth. The larger, dimmer portion of the moon in this photo is illuminated by Earth-shine, the reflection of sunlight off of the Earth onto the "dark side" of the moon (and then reflected back again to my camera on Earth). To a viewer on the dark side of the moon, the sun would not be visible, and the Earth would be shining brightly in its "full-Earth" phase.