The photo was taken from the roof terrace of the Bükk Observatory by astronomer Erika Varga-Verebélyi, astronomy guide, with a Nikon Z6 with 13 sec exposure time, from a tripod, without a telescope, at 23:30 on the night of 23rd.
As Erika said, the weather was not perfect, but the greenish comet, a little dimmer than the stars, was clearly visible. You can even make out its tail. When the picture was taken, the comet was about 30 degrees above the horizon. The nearest bright star (the brightest star in the circle) is Edasich, or Iota Draconis, the ninth brightest star in the constellation of the Dragon.
Comet C/2022 E3 was in perihelion, or near the Sun, on the evening of 12 January 2023. Comets orbit in highly elongated elliptical orbits. This orbit has a point close to the Sun, which for comet C/2022 E3 is 1.11 Che, where Che is the abbreviation for the Astronomical Unit, which is the Sun-Earth distance.
The comet will come closest to Earth on 1 February, when it will pass 0.28 CsE away from us. Optimistic forecasts suggest that it will be visible to the naked eye in the evening sky. This, of course, requires completely clear weather.
We look forward to welcoming you to our evening astronomy programmes where, weather permitting, you can see not only this comet, but also Jupiter and Mars, still relatively close to Earth, through our telescopes this week. Buy tickets HERE.
