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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

10 August 2020, 0336UT

Equipment:

1" Refractor f/4 and ST-402ME CCD Camera

Description:

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere this has been a good year to observe Comet 2P/Encke. Unfortunately, for those of us north of the equator 2P/Encke only started to appear above the twilight horizon in late July as it has been moving away from the Earth and getting fainter. 2P/Encke was at perihelion in its 3.3 year orbit on June 25 when it reached magnitude 7.3. The images show 2P on August 10, close inspection of the position of 2P in the 2 images show how far 2P moved in just 15 minutes. In these images 2P was 63 million miles from Earth, moving across Earths sky at 2.1 degrees per day and 2P had faded down to magnitude 12.7 as it moves away from Earth.

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