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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

2026 January 21, 1325UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera

Description:

Comet 88P/Howell continues to hug the morning horizon in twilight skies as the comet passed 0.2 degrees north of the center of the background Lagoon Nebula M8 on January 21. The comet was magnitude 14.8 and 210 million miles (0.0000357 light years) from Earth while the background Lagoon Nebula was 4100 light years from Earth. The comet was passing above a brighter region of the nebula which made the faint comet hard to observe with a small telescope. The comet will continue to hug the morning twilight horizon for the next few months as observed from Tucson as it reaches perihelion and its predicted brightest magnitude in March.