Chasing ZTF

 For about the last year now we've been hearing about a comet called C/2022 E3  (ZTF). What would happen when it rounded the sun on January 10, 2023? Orbital predictions say it's not been in our neck of the solar system since the last Ice Age 50,000 years ago.

 And then how bright might it be when it came closest to earth on February 2 at a distance of 26 million miles?

 I began preparing for this early, working up a chart of azimuth and altitude numbers starting on January 21. Surely one of those nights would provide a good view.

 Well, in a word: no.

 We've had cloudy skies almost continually since my chart began. And in those few instances when the sky cleared, it was either in the daytime or very briefly in the evening. How many times did I set up my camera on a tripod and  have it at the back door ready to haul it out to the back yard and try to view the comet.

 Estimates were for a magnitude of 5.4 in early February. They've been downgrading it to 6.6 now. Both numbers, being positive, predicted a poor attempt at naked eye viewing.

 So when yesterday arrived at the sky cleared - and stayed clear throughout the evening - I was ecstatic. I knew just where the comet would be at 8 PM local time (just to the left of Mars). Here is a crop from Stellarium which I used as my locator:

Credit: Stellarium

 Mars is always  easy to spot so I was provided with a guidepost. And Aldebaran - often called Taurus the Bull's bloodshot eye - served as another location marker. And then the Pleiades - the Seven Sisters - as clearly visible even to my poor eyes as a hazy cluster of white. There was no doubt where to look.

 I took about 25 pictures (and noise images) and stacked them with Sequator. Then I cropped out an area about equal to the predicted view  above. This is what I got:

 The two agree very well. But where is the comet? I've marked a "smudge" at about the location I'd expect it, but it's neither green nor does it have a tail:

 Frankly, all the  stars look a little fuzzy. But I'm using a Canon SureShot SX10 IS and that's certainly a poor choice for astrophotography. But it's what I have so it's my only choice. I had the camera make 15 second exposures at f/2.8 (as wide open as the lens will go) and with the camera set to its higher ISO (1600) and the lens set to wide angle (20mm). It's no wonder the results are so poor.

 Here is the stacked image converted to a  JPG to make it a manageable size for posting here:

Click to view a higher-resolution image

 I also used my 10x50 binoculars hoping I'd have a chance with some magnification. Mars was a beautiful sight but scanning to its left showed me nothing I'd identify as a comet. Just stars and more stars.

 I then used my Pixel 4A w/ 5G cell phone and set it up on a tripod and had it take about a 4 minute stack of images. It produced this result:

 And here's the Pixel image as a one minute video:

Four minutes condensed into one second

 I spent about an hour in the cold (it dipped to 18° overnight) but at least it was calm. The sky was gloriously clear and I can't complain about a single minute I stood there. I wish I could have seen the comet without any doubt.

 But I can't.