• Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in Auriga
    • C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
  • Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in Auriga
  • reached perihelion on January 12, 2023 and its
  • closest approach to Earth on February 2, 2023.
  • The dust tail appears below and to the right of the comet
  • and the thin, faint ion tail streaks straight off to the right
  • just above the very bright star Al Kab.
  • Date:  8 February 2023
  • FOV:  approximately 4.1° × 2.7°; about 2.5° of the ion tail is visible
  • Telescope:  Askar FRA300 pro (300mm f/5 Petzval)
  • Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,
  • ZWO 30F4 30mm mini guide scope
  • Computer:  ASIair pro Raspberry Pi
  • Mount:  iOptron CEM40
  • Camera:  ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS with gain 240
  • Filter:  Baader Light Pollution Moonglow filter with IR cut
  • Stacking:  fifty-six 60 second frames using Pixinsight
  • Total Time:  56 minutes
  • Processing:  Pixinsight – StarXTerminator for Stars, aligned comet with Stars
  • as operand, StarXTerminator batch job on all comet aligned frames,
  • integrated resulting Comet frames, SPCC and DBE on Stars, Color
  • Calibrated Comet using data from SPCC, PixelMath to combine
  • Stars and Comet, Saturation, DynCrop/Scale
  • Location:  Selkirk Shores near Pulaski, NY