Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF: a new image and live feed – 14 Jan. 2023
Soon after its perihelion, we imaged comet C/2022 E3 ZTF again, while it continues to slowly brightening.
The image above comes from the sigma-clipping combination of 30, 60-second exposures, unfiltered, remotely collected with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at the Virtual Telescope Project. Such a combination technique dramatically reduces the interference of stars on the comet. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of comet C/2022 E3 ZTF, this is why stars left trails on the background. The image was processed to show both the bright region and the faint ion tail at their best.
While a bright Moon was high in the sky, the comet easily shows its ion tail and a larger coma.
Below is another picture, made using a bit more frames (38) and combining them by ordinary average, so stars are visible. A Digital Development filter was used to optimize the visibility of both the bright and faint features.
Using the single frames we have, we created the short animation below, showing evolution along the tail.
These images were taken while showing the comet live to many thousands of people from all around the globe. Below, you can find the recording coming from the live streaming.
We will show this comet live, online again on the day of its flyby with the Earth!
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