Periodic Comet Borrelly arrived at perihelion on November 1st, at a distance of 204 million km from the Sun and about half that distance from Earth. It's easily observable in the late-night sky with a small telescope and dark skies, a challenge made easier the first few weeks of November while the Moon no longer dominates the night.
The comet will become fairly bright (as most comets go) reaching a magnitude around 7. The comet appears to be developing an anti-tail. Above is a ccd image of Comet Borrelly taken with an ST6 camera attached to a LX200 10" Shmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. The image was taken by Doug Snyder on the morning of 20 October 1994.
Elements heavier than zinc have been detected in an interstellar gas for the first time. Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe such elements as lead, arsenic, and krypton in a gas cloud 400 light years away, a feat made difficult by the tiny trace amounts of the elements in comparison to lighter elements. (Sky & Telescope, Nov.)
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