By Carole Dennett
By Mal Butler (pic by Pete Scotcher)
A photo of a green comet, last seen over the Earth in the time of Stonehenge, has been captured by Pete Scotcher.
Pete, who runs the Isle of Wight Tae Kwon-Do Club, took photos of the comet, which is still 28 million miles away, but was visible across the northern and southern hemispheres last week. He said: “I took them from my back garden in Colwell, in the early hours, on a DSLR camera on a star tracker.
“It took a while to frame the target and the final image is the result of 50 x 120-second photos which are then stacked with specialised software to get a detailed final result.
“The comet hasn’t been in our solar system since the Stone Age. It is mainly formed from rock and ice and has two ‘tails’. One is the dust and particles being lost as it moves through space and the second is a result of the solar wind from our sun.”
He added: “Astrophotography is a very addictive hobby! I usually capture nebulae and galaxies but couldn’t miss the chance to capture the comet.”
The comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), was discovered last March at the Palomar Observatory in California.
