Dec 302017
The PTO continues to follow comet C/2017 T1 (Heinze) as it gets closer to the Sun and, for now, the Earth. Closest approach to the Earth is still forecast for the 4th of January, so it has a few more days to go yet. This animation is only eight 300 second exposures. Earlier maintenance work I was doing in the observatory left the telescope out of focus and I did not notice until the third exposure of the 11 I had scheduled.
| The comet has now crossed into the northern constellation Lynx. It is still between the orbits of Earth and Mars and is now slightly above the plane of the Solar System. |
 The PTO’s tree obstructed view of the sky. Chart generated by TheSkyX. |