Comet ISON on 15 September

UK astronomer Pete Lawrence took this image of Comet ISON in the early hours of 15 September using a Vixen FL-102S 10 cm APO telescope and a Starlight Express SXV-H9 CCD camera. The camera was exposed for a total time of 40 minutes, comprising 10 x 120 s exposures and 4 x 300 s exposures, with the images stacked together to produce the final result. The streaks in the background are star trails, the apparent motion of stars in the night sky due to the rotation of Earth. North is in the direction of a line drawn from the comet's head towards the upper-left corner of the image.