Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF and its anti tail
Discovered by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), this green marvel is making its closest approach to Earth soon! One of the biggest talks about this comet is, it has a third anti tail. Generally a comet consists of only two tails. Ion tail and dust tail. Dust tail reflects sunlight and the ion tail is the glowy tail because of the ionized gases. But this one shows a third tail going towards the sun. Although it is not actually a tail but an optical illusion! The leftover dust behind the comet gets illuminated again as the Earth crosses the plane of the comet's Orbit around the sun. This causes an optical illusion which we perceive as a third tail in the opposite direction (seen as a lighter streak in the photo on the left) But it actually is not actually present. Fascinating right!?

Orion ED 80 T CF 80mm refractor
Skywatcher EQ6R Pro equatorial mount
ZWO ASI 294 MC pro ccd camera

50 light frames - 120 sec each at gain 120, f/6, 600mm equivalent

Image integrated in Astro Pixel Processor and processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop
Two stacks made - one for stars and one for the comet