Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), NGC 2281 and M101 in the spirit of George Alcock
Taken by James Roger Samworth on January 23, 2023 @
Nailstone, Nuneaton, UK
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Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
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Date Taken: 2023:01:24 17:23:32
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George Alcock (1912-2000) (http://martinmobberley.co.uk/Alcock.html) was the finder of five comets and five novae and has been described as the greatest visual astronomer who ever lived under cloudy UK skies. Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock was the brightest comet he had a share in discovering, and the fact he had done it with hand-held binoculars from indoors looking through a window just added his legendary status. His final discovery, Nova V838 Her, was made on 1991 March 25th, when George was 78 years old, and he was, once again, observing from indoors, through a downstairs double-glazed window, using 10x50 binoculars. I am now 76 (not far short of George’s 78 years!) and inspired by George, have been imaging objects for several years, again like George, from indoors through double glazed windows. So it seems very appropriate then, that I imaged Comet C/2022 ZTF E3 in this way, as well as imaging the Sun similarly. (In fact, in 2022, I managed to get images of the Sun on 213 days). In the same part of the sky as the comet, that is very light polluted from here, is NGC 2281, a cluster in Auriga, and the galaxy M101. I have always found M101 rather elusive, even from outside, so I was quite pleased to tease out anything at all through the double glazing. Although the image isn’t very good, you can just make out some of the NGC regions within M101.
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