Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Boötes (Boo)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett
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A Fortuitous Capture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th RASA8

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A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett
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A Fortuitous Capture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th RASA8

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Description

After completing another 6 hours on NGC 2245, I was pleased to find that I could see C/2022 E3 over my roof line. I had positioned my rig in the front yard  away from the 10-12 mph wind that night, forgetting to position in a place to observe the comet. I lucked out and then after 7 subs, dense, non forecasted, cloud cover horizon to horizon presented itself. Thinking I probably lost my opportunity with no clear nights in the 2 week forecast, I return to bed. Left the rig running in hopes that I might get lucky and as luck would have it, I did.

The comet had jumped approximately 3/4 of a degree in my FOV, but was still well within the frame.  The jump in the data left trying to combined stars and the comet a little lack luster with some tailing of the bright stars and a couple background galaxies. Nevertheless, successful first comet capture with the RASA8. 

I went with 3 min subs to see how much detail I could obtain with the hope of getting 30 sec subs at the end to use for HDR combination. 30 seconds were a complete loss, but hopefully I may get another night to capture this comet on its journey near the NCP. 

Comet C/2022 E3 is a longer period comet that is projected to have a 50,000 year orbital period.  The comet has three main visible portions in my image: the long ion tail is visible extending into the top right, the green coma dominates center part of the image, and broad white gray dust tail.

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  • A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett
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  • A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett
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    A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett
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A Fortuitous Capture of  Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Jan 17th  RASA8, Brandon Tackett