C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) 2023-Aug-15 Dan Bartlett

One hour of stacking shows this very large and diffuse 11th magnitude comet is still surprisingly active as it reaches its MOID with the Earth on August 18th of this year. As a reminder C/2023 E1 reached Perihelion on July 1st, 2023 and has been closing its distance to a mere 0.374au from us in three days when this image was stacked.

Activity is quite evident in the comet centered and stacked version (with the stars removed). So check it out to view the tail length and direction. Not so obvious in the final revision in the over crowded Cygnus starfield.

Observational details:
Backyard setup
scope: C14 D = 356mm; fl =729mm; F# 2
camera: asi 2600mcP
exposure: 120 x30 sec
Seeing: 4/5
Transparency: 9/10
Observer: DEBartlett
Location: June Lake, California, USA



Image INFO:WCS transformation ....... Linear
Projection ............... Gnomonic
Projection origin ........ [1037.477213 1554.027807] px -> [RA: 21 38 36.673 Dec: +42 14 40.75]
Resolution ............... 2.127 arcsec/px
Rotation ................. -3.434 deg
Reference system ......... ICRS
Observation start time ... 2023-08-15 08:45:09 UTC
Observation end time ..... 2023-08-15 08:45:39 UTC
Geodetic coordinates ..... 119 04 46 W 37 46 30 N 2357 m
Focal distance ........... 729.26 mm
Pixel size ............... 7.52 um
Field of view ............ 1d 13' 33.4" x 1d 50' 10.6"
Image center ............. RA: 21 38 36.668 Dec: +42 14 40.81
Image bounds:
top-left .............. RA: 21 41 39.947 Dec: +43 11 42.64
top-right ............. RA: 21 34 57.333 Dec: +43 07 13.47
bottom-left ........... RA: 21 42 09.973 Dec: +41 21 42.75
bottom-right .......... RA: 21 35 38.844 Dec: +41 17 21.28