2022e3 20230120 0146 pabel

Hi all,

We had a very clear transparent night here last night and I made two observations of comet C/2022 E3 ZTF which was at a more reasonable altitude.  The comet was very obvious at x38, and at x115 there was quite a bit of detail.  There was clearly a brighter core, and there was a brighter region to the right of the comet.  I don't believe I detected the ion tail, and there was a greenish tint present to the whole thing, although this may not have been quite as strong as the previous night.  There are three drawings included here, one at x38 and a second at x115.  The third one lists some of the stars in the field.

I attempted a magnitude estimate- the most suitable comparison star I could find was HD139283- a K2 class star in Bootes (not ideal due to the colour, but the only suitable one I could find at the time).  It was also outside the field of view!  Still,  HD139283 is listed as Mv= 6.96, so taking it to be magnitude 7.0 my estimate (via the Pogson step method) was: 70+8 giving a Mv~ 6.2 for the comet.  This is a rough estimate of course but it is a fraction brighter than my last osbervation.