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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

2025 December 3, 0131UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera

Description:

In this image Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) was only 5 degrees above the western horizon in evening twilight as it is now moving into the Sun's glare as observed from Earth. The comet will be 108 million miles from the Sun at perihelion on Jan 20 when it is predicted to brighten to magnitude 8 and should be about magnitude 9 when it makes its close approach to Earth at 93 million miles on Feb 17, 2026. The comets short tail is not visible in this bright twilight image when the comet was magnitude 10.7 slowly getting brighter as it moves closer to the Sun.