Miguel Claro (Opens in a new tab) He is a professional photographer, author, and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates stunning images of the night sky. K European Southern Observatory photo ambassador (Opens in a new tab) and member of world at night (Opens in a new tab) and the official astrophotographer for Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve (Opens in a new tab), which specializes in astronomical “skyscapes” that bridge the Earth and the night sky. Join Miguel here as he takes us through his “Comet E3 ZTF showing tail in perspective and immersed in a colorful Starfield.”
This image shows a close-up view of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on January 22, 2023 engulfed in a colorful star field.
Aside from the appearance of a gorgeous green coma of glowing carbon gas emanating from cometthe image reveals a rare tail due to the fact that the planet Earth was crossing the orbital plane of C/2022 E3 (ZTF)which allows us to see anti tail in perspective.
The comet was photographed late at night at a distance of 42 million miles (67 million km) from Dark Sky Kiva (Opens in a new tab) Observatory in Portugal. This long-distance traveler from the outer solar system It has not been seen this close to Earth in 50,000 years, and it moves quickly against the backdrop of the starry sky in this image.
Related: Watch a green comet make its first approach to Earth in 50,000 years today with this free webcast
Read more: How to view and photograph comets
On the night the image was taken, the comet was located very close to it Constellation Draco, Dragon, and showed a faint optical magnitude of +6.3. On Wednesday (February 1), the comet will be in place The closest point to our planet (known as a perihelion) and can eventually reach the size of the naked eye in some locations.
This image was taken with a Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope with focal ratio F5 on an EM200 mount, which was automatically aimed by the Asiair Pro wifi camera controller. My camera for this photo is a modified Nikon D850 DSLR set to ISO3200.
This image was produced by combining 40 separate exposures taken of 200 seconds each. The total integration time was 130 minutes. Post-processing completed in PixInsight 1.8.9-1 and Photoshop CC 2023.
Want to see Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) up close or try to take pictures of the comet or the night sky? Be sure to check out our guides on The best telescopes And best binoculars can help. Also don’t forget to check out our guides on How to view and photograph cometsAnd so do we The best cameras for astrophotography And The best lenses for astrophotography To start.
To see more of Miguel Claro’s work, please See their website (Opens in a new tab) Or follow his Instagram Stories at www.instagram.com/miguel_claro (Opens in a new tab) .
Editor’s note: If you took your own photos of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and would like to share them with Space.com readers, submit your photo(s), comments, name, and location to [email protected].
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