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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

29 June 2026, 0953UT

Equipment:

91mm f/4.9 Refractor and ASI533MM camera

Description:

On June 29 UT Comet P/2021 N1 (ZTF) made its close approach to Earth at 15.3 million miles away. The comet was moving at 3.3 degrees per day across Earths sky which required a short exposure of 7x10 seconds in these images to keep the comet from appearing as a streak or the stars as streaks which resulted in a rather faint view of the comet and its tail. The comet was magnitude 15.5 with a coma 0.35' wide and a tail 1.3' (0.022 degrees) long. The comet being so close to Earth has about reached its peak brightness and will now get fainter as it moves towards perihelion in its orbit 89 million miles from the Sun on July 28.