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Community photo entitled  by John Grage on 01/16/2023 at Sebastian, Florida

On 01/16/2023 05:20 am by John Grage| Sebastian, Florida

Here is my image of long period comet 2002 B3 ZTF taken from my observatory Monday morning 5:20 AM 1/16/2023 with a Moon being chased by the sun! With the universe functioning how it does there have been few opportunities to image it. Astronomy definitely requires patience and perseverance.
While the media has sensationalized it as they do with many astronomical events some of their information is correct. It is green but so are most! This is not rare. The green comes from carbons sublimating from the ice core into gas and makes the large coma as it is warmed by the sun. The dust and gas tails can be millions of miles long. This is where meteor showers can come from as Earth passes through the path.
The large dust tail has a different color. A very narrow ion tail can just be made out at the edge of the dust and Coma. Imaged with a 12"SCT @f3 with a zwoasi 224mc camera.
A wider field of view would be better but this is the telescope I have operating at this time for other reasons. Enjoy as you think about our place in the universe.😎

12" SCT @F3 Zwo Asi224mc Stack of ten 4 sec subs

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