Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on the night of 22 January 2023 when it was in Draco, with it near the reddish star Edasich (aka Iota Draconis) at top, and the


Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on the night of 22 January 2023 when it was in Draco, with it near the reddish star Edasich (aka Iota Draconis) at top, and the edge-on galaxy NGC 5907 below the comet. To the right of that galaxy is NGC 5866, aka M102. The dust tail of the comet was showing a strong anti-tail spike ahead of the comet's greenish coma, as this was two days before we crossed the plane of the comet's orbit when we would see its dust tail 'edge-on'. The coma of the comet is strongly cyan or green from glowing diatomic carbon molecules, common for comets. There was little sign of the blue ion tail in my exposures this night. The comet was discovered in March 2022 at the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope, thus the ZTF name.


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Keywords: -, -periodic, /2022, 22, 2023, 5866, 5907, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, comet, draco, draconis, dust, e3, earth, edasich, edge-, evening, galaxy, iota, january, m102, ngc, night, observation, sky, space, star, starry, stars, tail