Dr. Gerold Holtkamp, ​​February 13, 2023

A comet is a fleeting visitor. This also applies to comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). On December 31, 2023 it was in the northern sky over Osnabrück and on February 13, 2023 it was already in the south. The following photos were taken from a garden in Osnabrück.

The comet on January 31, 2023

At the beginning of the night there were reasonable clear skies for several hours. Since the observation was towards the north, the influence of Osnabrück's bright city center was small. However, the bright crescent moon was very annoying. A Canon 6D with a 300 mm lens and ISO 1600 sensitivity was used. The camera was tracked on a Staradventurer travel mount. The comet's head is overexposed, but the thin tail is clearly visible.

The movement of the comet against the star background can be seen within a short time. The following animated gif was created from 362 recordings from 8:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. The comet is the blurred spot. The fixed stars also wander in the camera's field of view because the tracking was not aligned precisely enough.

The comet on February 13, 2023

It was a clear night, without a moon. This time the Skywatcher APO80/600 telescope and QHY268M camera were used. Since it is a mono camera, color filters were used: L 180 shots of 30 s, RGB each 60 shots of 30 s. The shots were stacked with Fitswork and then processed with AstroArt. Unfortunately, the ion tail cannot be seen. For me, the comet was directly over downtown OS. Within 13 days he had moved from north to south, just a quick visitor.