Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Animation (Day 1), Eric Coles (coles44)
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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Animation (Day 1)

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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Animation (Day 1), Eric Coles (coles44)
Powered byPixInsight

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Animation (Day 1)

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Description

There have been many beautiful color images of this comet. This is not one of them. Instead, it is a mono luminosity animation of the movement of the comet over a two-hour period, where the mount tracks the comet, not the stars. This is early morning of, January 25, 2023. Images were taken every 30 seconds and ultimately animated in Photoshop after a bit of processing in PixInsight. It was done with my Planewave 20" CDK, not the best scope for comet images. At least it's up close and personal.

What should you notice? First take time to download the full image. (Sorry, it is a bit large due to the 240 frames of the animation, even with some GIF compression.) Take notice of the tail of the comet. At this point, this part of the tail is a fairly uniform single stream. Also notice the angle of the tail relative to its travel. Both the angle and the uniformity of the tail change on day two (January 26, 2023). Here is the link to that image (https://www.astrobin.com/tv2mrt/) done at the same time of day, in the same way. Go back and forth between the two animations. Perhaps you will notice other changes.

This is a surprising comet that is changing rapidly over a very short time.

Enjoy.

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