Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) & Galaxy NGC 55: View from Chile
Astrophotographer Daniele Gasparri: "There is a little-known comet, best seen from the Southern Hemisphere, putting on a beautiful show. On the night of February 9, it passed close to the bright galaxy NGC 55. Comet Wierzchos is not very bright and is not visible to the naked eye, but it displays a long, striking tail and it is a very beautiful telescopic object. This image captures the closest approach to NGC 55, taken from the Atacama Desert with my 20 cm Newtonian telescope. I had to deal with a huge amount of satellite tracks (on average 3-4 for each 120 seconds exposure), which almost ruined my attempt to image the comet and the galaxy. The photo is a two panel mosaic made to include the full extent of NGC 55. Even so, the field of view is not wide enough to show the full length of comet tail. Each panel is the average of 10X120 seconds exposures, aligned both on stars and the comet."
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś) is a hyperbolic Oort cloud comet, discovered on March 3, 2024, by Polish astronomer Kacper Wierzchoś. It reached perihelion on January 20, 2026, with apparent magnitude of around +6.5, visible in larger binoculars. It has a highly eccentric orbit with an inbound orbital period of millions of years and is expected to eventually be ejected from the Solar System.
NGC 55, also known as the String of Pearls Galaxy, is a Magellanic type barred spiral galaxy located about 6.5 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor.
Location: Atacama desert region, Chile
Photographer's website: https://www.danielegasparri.com
Date: Feb. 9, 2026
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