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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Denver, Colorado

Date/Time of photo:

19 July 2018, 0854UT

Equipment:

11" SCT f/6.4 and STF-8300M CCD Camera

Description:

Comet C/2018 N1 (NEOWISE) was at perihelion August 1 when it was 121 million miles from the Sun. In this GIF the comet was 39 million miles from the Earth and magnitude 13.9. The images were only 30 seconds long due to the fact that the comet was moving at 0.15 degrees per hour across Earth's night sky, longer images with my equipment would have shown a streaked comet. With such short images the magnitude estimate may more correctly reflect the magnitude of the nucleus rather than the overall magnitude of the coma and dust cloud. Overall comet brightness estimates by others show a rather wide range of from 9 to 13.

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