Photographer:
Pepe Chambó
Location of Photo:
Vallés, Valencia, Spain
Date/Time of photo:
2024 February 14, 02:54 UT
Equipment:
TS-Photon 8" N f/3.6, Atik 383L+
Description:
Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan on February 14, 2024, while it was located over the Virgo Cluster, a collection of over a thousand galaxies spanning about 8 degrees in the constellation Virgo. In the image field numerous galaxies can be seen, highlighting NGC 4608 just above the comet and NGC 4596 in the direction of its tail; both are lenticular galaxies with a well-defined central bar and are located at a distance of 55 million light-years. The bright blue star is Rho Virginis with a magnitude of 5, while the comet shines at magnitude 9.5 with a green gaseous coma and a tail extending half a degree in length.