C2023 H2 (Lemmon)

Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon)

Discovered by astronomers at the Mt Lemmon Observatory on 2023 April 23, reaching perihelion on 2023 October 29, at a distance of 0.9 AU from the Sun and was closest to Earth (0.19 AU) on 2023 November 10.

At the time of closest approach to Earth it achieved mag 6, but was too far north to be visible from southern Australia. In the days following it quickly travelled southwards to become visible in dark skies in the evening, with increasing Moon interference.

2023 November 18: photographed against the stars of Capricornus when about magnitude 7, with a 4-day old Moon nearby. A short tail was visible at about 1:30 o'clock.

Takahashi TOA-130 + 1.5X extender/EM-200 Temma 2/SBIG STL11000M combo: a series of 2 min exposures through R, G and B filters at f11 (44 mins total) were aligned to optimise the comet and stars; field of view ~0.6° x 0.4°, north is to the right.