Comet Catalina C/2013 US10 Jan 16 2016

Comet Catalina moving infront of the Constellation Ursa Major. Image taken from our Backyard using my Altair Lightwave 66/400 ED refractor on a Star Adventurer mount and a Canon 600D DSLR

The bright star top centre left is the multiple star system Mizar and Alcor in the tail of the Great Bear or handle of the Plough or Big Dipper. 

The two tails, ion and dust, can be seen emanating from the cometary nucleus at roughly 10 and 2 o'clock.
When this photograph was taken the comet was at more or less its closest to the Earth. The comet is from the Oort Cloud a remote place at the extremity of the Solar System. Since perehelion it is on an ejection trajectory and will leave our Solar System for ever.

Enjoy this visitor while you can!  For the next few weeks, it can be seen through binoculars, moving from the Great Bear's tail towards Polaris the pole star.

Successive enlargements from the widefield photograph