<< Back to gallery

Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

3 December 2021, 1138-1158 UT

Equipment:

11" SCT and STF-8300M CCD camera

Description:

Comet Leonard continues to approach Earth. It was magnitude 6.7 and 40 million miles away when this gif was created. This is a 25 image gif animation of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) with each image 45 seconds long. The comet coma covers the entire gif field of view and most of the white that you see in this animation is the comet's coma. This gif and image shows what is near the center of the comet's coma, the heart of the coma. The comet's tail extends well beyond the field of view of this gif and image.