SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Mike Olason
Location of Photo:
Tucson, Arizona
Date/Time of photo:
2026 March 9, 1250UT
Equipment:
50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera
Description:
Comet 88P/Howell is nearing perihelion in its orbit on March 18 when it will be 125 million miles from the Sun. The comet is staying very low just above the morning horizon as morning twilight brightens, making it hard to image the comet as it rises over the Catalina Mountains just before it is lost in morning twilight. In these images the comet was magnitude 10.6 with a coma about 2 arc minutes wide at an altitude of 8.3 degrees just after it had risen above the mountains and just before it was lost in the bright morning twilight. The comet has been staying around magnitude 10.6 to 10.8 the last few weeks so unless it has an outburst it probably has reached its brightest.
