Strange Comet Over the High Tatras

From the photographer: “The brightness of comet C/2022 E3 ZTF reached the threshold of 5.5 magnitude, which makes the comet visible to the naked eye (away from cities, of course). On January 22nd, due to the unique geometry of the comet and our planet Earth, a very prominent anti-tail was visible. In the image, the beautiful comet appears over the Slovakian snowy High Tatras Mountains (where several comets were discovered in the last century), captured with a 200mm telephoto lens from the frozen shore of Štrbské Pleso lake. In the foreground, the symbolic mountain triangle-shaped Patria Hotel can be seen nearby the illuminated pathway. Despite the light pollution of Zákopané city in the north, over the mountains, the comet was nicely visible with its tail. Of course, human eyes are not that sensitive, so the real experience of the comet in the sky was not such captivating so far, at least not without binoculars. The comet is now on its way to the closest point to Earth, which passes on February 1st (0.28 AU). Used Canon Ra, Tamron 70-200mm@131mm, f3.2, ISO 1600, vary exposures (5-25) according to the brightness of the foreground (HDR for the foreground). Sky tracked with Vixen Polarie U.”

Technical details: The telephoto lens view to the comet nearby Iota Draconis. For this shot, I used Canon Ra, Tamron 70-200mm@200mm, f2.8, ISO 2500, 30s exposures, and Vixen Polarie U.