Comet ATLAS 2019 L3

Comet 2019 L3, ATLAS as shot on February 2nd, 2022, as it swung by the tiny open cluster, NGC2266.
NGC 2266, top center in the image below, is an open cluster in the constellation Gemini.

Its apparent size is 5 arc minutes. Its distance is ~11,000 light years.
It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 7 December 1785.
The Comet's closest approach to Earth was on Friday, January 7th, 2022 at a distance of 2.58 AU or 386,092, 597 kilometers.

For this stacked image I shot 120 x 30 second images with my ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled CMOS Imager
at the prime focus of an Orion EON ED80 with a BAADER MPCC field flattener inline.

I shot 13 darks, 100 flats and 100 bias frames. The upper image is in mono and the color version below.
Comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) is currently in the constellation of Gemini.

The current Right Ascension is 06h 42m 58s and the Declination is +26° 22’ 08”.Right Ascension06h 42m 58s.
The comet is about 12th magnitude and is not exhibiting much of a tail at this point in it's pass.



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