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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

2024 December 9, 1014UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 Camera

Description:

Comet 333P/LINEAR made its close approach to Earth at 1014UT on the morning of 2024 December 9 as seen from Tucson, Arizona at a distance of 80,860,186 kilometers (50,254,932 miles). The comet was traveling at 6722 km per hour (4178 mph) relative to the Earth as it approached Earth on December 9, relatively slowly when one considers the Earth was moving at 107,208 km/hour (66,616 mph) and the comet at 133,200 km/hour (82,784 mph) relative to the Sun. The comet was magnitude 11.0 with a short tail to the upper left of the coma. The image is a stack of 10x40 second images taken around the comets closest approach to Earth from 1010-1019UT. Haze and short exposures due to how fast the comet was moving as it passed Earth did not give much comet coma or tail detail.