The 2023 ‘green comet’ is now visible from Earth for the first time in 50,000 years
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a long period comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 2 March 2022. The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus which is due to the effect of sunlight on its molecules, especially diatomic carbon and cyanogen.
The comet reached its perihelion on 12 January 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km; 103 million mi) and the closest approach to Earth will be on 1 February 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km; 26 million mi). The comet got brighter than magnitude 6 and is dimly visible with the naked eye as a small diffuse smudge under dark enough sky, but most viewers will need binoculars.
Equipment used:
Mount: Dark Frame hypertuned EQ6
Telescope: TS65Q quadruplet Apo refractor
#QHY294M Pro Cmos camera, cooled at - 10°C
#QHYCCD QHYCCD CFW3M-US 36mm filterwheel
#antlia 36mm 3nm Ha filter
#antlia 36mm LRGB filters
Qhyccd QHY5L-IIM guide camera
Qhyccd Polemaster
Software used:
Eqmod, SGP - Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, Stellarium with stellariumScope, SharpCap for polar alignment
Date: 23.01.2023
Location: Hemel Hempstead, bortle 5
Antlia V-Pro Blue 36 mm: 15×120″(30′)
Antlia V-Pro Green 36 mm: 15×120″(30′
Antlia V-Pro Luminance 36 mm: 40×120″(1h 20′)
Antlia V-Pro Red 36 mm: 14×120″(28′)
Total Integration:
2h 48′
Stacked in AstroPixel Processor and processed in Pixinsight, with the help of Noise and Star Xterminator, and Photoshop CC 2023
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24.01.2021 Waxing gibbous moon
Distance 400,649 Km
Illumination 77.9%
Age 10.8 days
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Single 5 sec ISO800 exposure
Equipment used:
TS65 quadruplet imaging telescope
Astromodified Canon 600D
Eq3 Pro mount
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