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Comet Olbers 13P at Perihelion (June 29, 2024).jpg
Comet 13P/Olbers on the day of its perihelion. It is low in the north embedded in the perpetual twilight of a summer night at my latitude of 51º N.
The comet is the small fuzzy spot just left of centre, so nothing spectacular! Comet Olbers is a well-known periodic comet orbiting the Sun every 69 years, similar to Comet Halley. The two brighest stars at top left are Talitha and Talitha Australis in the feet of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The comet was about 7th magitude at this time, so not naked eye. And it was in the constellation Lynx.
I shot this after midnight (at 2 am MDT) on June 29/30, so this was on the day the comet was reaching perihelion, June 30, 2024, its closest point to the Sun in its 69-year orbit. It was then 1.1 AU from the Sun (1 AU = distance from Earth to Sun). The comet's closest approach to Earth is, or was, July 20, 2024.
Comet 13P was discovered on March 6, 1815 by Heinrich Olbers. Before its 2024 return it had last been seen in 1956. It will return again in 2094.
This is a single 1-minute exposure with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2 and 70mm on the Canon R5 at ISO 400, and tracking the sky on the MSM Nomad tracker., so the ground and lights are blurred somewhat. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
The comet is the small fuzzy spot just left of centre, so nothing spectacular! Comet Olbers is a well-known periodic comet orbiting the Sun every 69 years, similar to Comet Halley. The two brighest stars at top left are Talitha and Talitha Australis in the feet of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The comet was about 7th magitude at this time, so not naked eye. And it was in the constellation Lynx.
I shot this after midnight (at 2 am MDT) on June 29/30, so this was on the day the comet was reaching perihelion, June 30, 2024, its closest point to the Sun in its 69-year orbit. It was then 1.1 AU from the Sun (1 AU = distance from Earth to Sun). The comet's closest approach to Earth is, or was, July 20, 2024.
Comet 13P was discovered on March 6, 1815 by Heinrich Olbers. Before its 2024 return it had last been seen in 1956. It will return again in 2094.
This is a single 1-minute exposure with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2 and 70mm on the Canon R5 at ISO 400, and tracking the sky on the MSM Nomad tracker., so the ground and lights are blurred somewhat. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
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