SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Mike Olason
Location of Photo:
Tucson, Arizona
Date/Time of photo:
2026 January 14, 1320UT
Equipment:
50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera
Description:
These images of Comet 88P/Howell were collected in morning twilight sky as the comet rose above the Catalina Mountains. The Globular Cluster NGC 6401 (magnitude 9.5) was to the right of the comet, as one can observe the comet certainly is faint compared to the star cluster. The comet had a coma 0.5' wide and was magnitude 14.5, although the twilight and low altitude make such measurements uncertain. The star to the lower left of the comet is magnitude 14.3. Unfortunately, the comet will continue to hug the morning horizon at twilight for the next several months for observers in the Northern Hemisphere.
