Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is captured in the image. At the time of the recording, it was located between the photogenic star groups (so-called asterisms) of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, which are stars from the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations.
| An asterism is a distinct group of stars in the sky, but not one of the 88 official constellations. Well-known asterisms are, for example, the Summer Triangle, the Big Dipper, the Winter Hexagon and the Winter Triangle, the Big Diamond, the Teapot, the Clothes Hanger or the Flowerpot. |
The picture was taken at the turnoff to Popradské pleso on the High Tatras highway around two o’clock in the morning. At the time of imaging, the comet was still approaching the Earth, so it gradually brightened and its tail was photographically prominent – it reached 10 angular degrees, which corresponds to the angular size of 20 lunar full moons side by side.
Visually, according to Horálek, it was not so prominent, however, even without the use of binoculars, the comet was visible with the naked eye at the observation point in the High Tatras.
Video from Britain: A green comet has appeared over Kent
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The astrophotographer took a total of 90 individual half-minute exposures with a light telephoto lens. The individual images were combined into a single image using the so-called mathematical data combining method, which cleaned the resulting image of digital noise and revealed fainter structures in the tail of the comet and the dust nebula around the star Polaris (top right).
The Comet and the Two Chariots
“At that time, the temperature dropped sharply below -15 °C, so the batteries also failed and the lenses froze. Fortunately, I managed to photograph the data before the technology completely failed,” noted Horálek.
- Astronomical picture of the day (Astronomy Picture Of the Day, APOD) is a prestigious award for the most interesting astronomical photo of the day, which is selected for each day and supplemented with a description by prof. Jerry Bonnell of Michigan Technological University and Robert Nemiroff of the University of Maryland, NASA collaborators.
The rare comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is nicknamed “green” because of its appearance, or “Neanderthal” because it last flew by the Earth about 47,500 years ago.
In binoculars until the end of March
Comet ZTF reached its closest approach to Earth on February 1 at a distance of about 42.5 million kilometers and is now moving away from Earth.
From February 2, the light of the moon began to interfere with the observation of the vlasata, because on February 5 there was a full moon. The moonless sky awaits the comet again from February 8, when it will move through the constellation of the Chariot. On February 9, it will enter the constellation Taurus. In Taurus, that is, high in the winter sky, we will see the comet on February 11 and 12 near the bright planet Mars.
Its brightness will already fall below the limit of visibility with the naked eye, but by the end of February it will be easily observable in binoculars. It will be visible in small telescopes (from 7 cm in diameter) until the end of March, when it will already be very low above the horizon.
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QUIZ: Do you know astronomy? The actual comet was already known to the Neanderthals
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