Bright Dust Trail of Planet Jupiter Family Comet 10P/Tempel: View from Arizona

Bright Dust Trail of Planet Jupiter Family Comet 10P/Tempel: View from Arizona

Astrophotographer Chris Schur: "This comet is exhibiting the most obvious dust trail I have ever seen in 50 years of imaging."

Comet 10P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 2, is a large Jupiter-family comet roughly 10 km in diameter with a 5.36 year orbit around the Sun. Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) are short-period comets with orbital periods under 20 years, whose orbits are strongly influenced by planet Jupiter’s immense gravity. 10P/Tempel was discovered on July 4, 1873 by Wilhelm Tempel. At perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) passage on August 2, 2026, the solar elongation will be 164 degrees at a magnitude of approximately 8–10 with a declination of –24. The closest approach to Earth will be the next day on August 3, 2026, at a distance of 0.414 AU (61.9 million km). The comet should then be visible with binoculars.

Image Data: Date/Time Local: 7/10/26 12:47 am MST -Date/Time UT: 7/10/26 7:47 UT -FOV: 200' x 134' -Orientation: N up -Seeing: 10 -Transparency: 9 -Orig. Scale: 1.2 arcsec/Pixel -Instrument: RASA 11 f/2.2 -Exposure: 60m total -Camera: ASI6200MM + UV/IR + Baader LRGB -Location: Happy Jack,AZ` 

The background here is filled with integrated flux nebula, and on the original luminance data, a short tail was seen at about a 45 degree to the trail. Easily seen in 10 x 50 binoculars. Bortle 1, 7000 feet elevation.

Arizona is a landlocked state in the Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the northwest and California to the west, and shares an international border with the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest.

Image Credit: Chris Schur 
Location: Happy Jack, Arizona, United States
Date: July 10, 2026

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