Pons-Brooks During Eclipse

From the photographer: “Periodic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks returned to the inner Solar System in 2024 after 71 years, shining brighter than magnitude +4 in spring of 2024. The comet would be 25 degrees to the east of the Sun during the total eclipse of 8th April 2024, bringing up the possibility of being spotted during totality. So, I decided to try this.

During the first minute of total solar eclipse on 8th April 2024, I shot a few pictures of the sky around Jupiter using a 85 mm lens to see if Pons-Brooks would show up. To make sure about the image, I asked for high resolution pictures of the Jupiter and the comet from my brother Cenk E. Tezel. He photographed them from Mudanya, Turkey around the same time, which was an hour after sunset there.

Comparing the images, I am happy to confirm I was indeed able to catch Pons-Brooks during totality, and caught Uranus as well. The first image shows the picture I shot during the eclipse with its annotated counterpart. The alternate image shows the same piece of sky with Cenk’s evening shot as overlaid on the totality picture and its annotated counterpart.”