Comet hunters rarely retire early when hunting their prey and skywatcher Jimmy Westlake is no exception.

To catch this view of a starry night and the rather nondescript Comet Machholz, Westlake ventured out to Yampa, Colorado and took a one-hour exposure of the sky beginning at 10:35 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2005.

Westlake, a physical sciences professor at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, used a 35 millimeter wide-angle lens and a Nikon FE-2 camera to take this image. The Yampa Buttes, volcanic rock formations, are silhouetted in lights from the town of Phillipsburg, Colorado. Meanwhile, the stars leave streaked arcs during this hour-long exposure. The stellar point at top right is Polaris.

Don't worry if you can't spot Comet Machholz in the image since the comet is barely visible to the naked eye. Luckily, Westlake picked the icy wanderer out and highlighted its greenish arc in this image with a pair of yellow bars. Click here for to see Machholz pointed out in Westlake's image.

-- Tariq Malik

Credit: Jimmy Westlake.

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