Comet 169P and Starlink Satellites
Taken by Mike Olason on September 19, 2026 @
Tucson, Arizona
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Details:
Comet 169P/NEAT has emerged from morning twilight at magnitude 11 with a pencil thin tail 0.2 degrees long and a nice coma 4' wide. On this morning the comet was sharing this area of the morning sky with a lot of Starlink Satellites and probably a few other satellites. The comet has just recently emerged from the Sun's glare as it spent several weeks between the Earth and the Sun inside the orbit of Venus. The comet made its close approach to Earth back on August 11 when it was only 15.5 million miles from Earth, in this image the comet was now 62 million miles from Earth. On September 21 the comet was at perihelion 56 million miles from the Sun. The comet brightened to magnitude 11.3 as it passed the Earth, faded to about magnitude 12 as it moved away from the Earth but then brightened again to magnitude 11 as it has approached perihelion. I have included an image from the comets close approach to Earth from August 9 when the comet was moving very fast as it was approaching Earth. Click on the larger images to get the best resolution image.
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