📋 Tender Overview
On Tuesday February 7 a delegation from the Peruvian Space Agency - CONIDA traveled to the Archaeological Zone of Caral in order to visually observe Comet C2022 E3 ZTF in addition to trying to photograph it. To meet these objectives we used an Astro-Tech 102 EDL semi-apochromatic refracting telescope with a Celestron CGX mount and tripod as well as a Sony A6000 camera.Upon arrival at our destination we observed that the sky of Caral was quite cloudy especially in the northern area which was where the comet can be observed. Despite this climatic difficulty we installed and assembled the equipment. We took great care in aligning the telescope mount in relation to the Earths axis of rotation but the lack of stars above the sky delayed this activity too much and others we had planned next. Gradually as the night progressed some stars began to be discovered so slowly we were also able to complete the previous alignment we were able to identify and use stars such as Achernar Aldebaran Procyon and Capella among others.Eventually the sky cleared though not much in the direction of the comet and over the constellation Auriga. Hurrying the pace we could briefly distinguish it in the eyepiece of the refractor. Then we seek to capture it with the camera. There were few shots which are shown in the image that accompanies this note. To the naked eye the comet was not visible at any time. Actually the almost full Moon which had already appeared but still covered by clouds did not contribute to us in that regard due to the intense light it reflects from the Sun. The photographic shots were taken until the sky was covered again. After a long wait seeing that there was no sign of clearing we decided to return to Lima.In shortThe comet is no longer visible to the naked eye.To see the comet you need to use either binoculars or a telescope.The comets brightness has fallen markedly in recent days and will continue to do so as the month progresses.We thank CONIDA and the Archaeological Zone of Caral for authorizing us to make these astronomical observations from the latter place.
