A comet that has travelled 4.5trillion kilometers will make its closest pass to the Earth tonight for the first time in 50,000 years, and experts say it may never be seen again. A stargazer captured jaw-dropping pictures of the so-called green comet - from his garden even before it makes itc closest approach.
Tim White, 31, set up his high-powered telescope at his home to document the newly discovered comet, which will make its closest approach to Earth on Wednesday. At its closest point, Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF will pass by our planet at around 41 million km (26 million miles).
Photographs captured by astronomers have shown a green hue around the body of the comet. Tim set up his equipment on the mornings of Jan 20 and Jan 24 to capture the comet's progress he describes as having "been very dynamic, changing rapidly".
He explains: "The comet was faint but noticeable through binoculars for the second half of January, and I was amazed at what the images from the camera showed.
"With tracked long exposures, the camera reveals a lot more than our eyes can ever see, and with purpose-built astronomy software, the final images made from dozens of subframes can be really impressive. My images involved two hours and four hours data.
"The tracking mount follows the stars to enable long exposures, although the comet actually tracks slightly differently, but software can account for this when processing the data.
"If the moon was in frame alongside the comet, it'd appear really small.
"It's been arguably the best northern hemisphere comet since 'Neowise' in 2020. I look forward to imaging it more in February."
Tim used data for the image from January 20 captured between approximately 2am and 5am, and data for the image from 24th captured between around 2am and 6am.
He uses a Redcat 51 (250mm refractor telescope) with a ZWO 2600MC astronomy camera.
