08/04/2026
I spent some time last night capturing the Comet 10P Tempel.
It was at its perihelion (closest to the sun meaning brightest) last night on August 3rd.
While you can't see the comet's tail, you can see the line of the dust trail.
"Comet 10P/Tempel was discovered by the prolific, late 19th century comet hunter Wilhelm Tempel on the night of July 4th, 1873.
There’s a unique feature seen in recent images of Comet 10P/Tempel. While the dust and ion tail of the comet is streaming straight back behind the comet as seen from our Earthly perspective, we’re actually seeing the razor-edge line of the dust trail from the comet, fanning out across its path. This is due to residual dust from ancient passages of the comet through the inner solar system. We just passed the orbital plane crossing for the comet yesterday on July 20th, meaning the thin dust plane bracketing the comet may reach its brightest this week."
Also....I was doing some moon imaging in preparation for tonight's big event.
"An abandoned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage is set to accidentally crash into the moon on August 5, 2026 at 02:35am. Moving at 5,400 mph, the impact near the Einstein Crater will create a new crater but poses no danger to Earth."
It isn't known whether the impact will be viewable, but thoughts are that the dust cloud may be.
My moon pic shot with my scope last night showing the area of impact....all images shot with the Vaonis Vespera scope.
