Comet 333P/LINEAR made its close approach to Earth at 1014UT on the morning of 2024 December 9 as seen from Tucson, Arizona at a distance of 80,860,186 kilometers (50,254,932 miles). The comet was traveling at 6722 km per hour (4178 mph) relative to the Earth as it approached Earth on December 9, relatively slowly when one considers the Earth was moving at 107,208 km/hour (66,616 mph) and the comet at 133,200 km/hour (82,784 mph) relative to the Sun. The comets magnitude at close approach was G=11.0 as calculated from 4x10 second images taken thru a green filter in an aperture diameter of 2.4'. The gif animation shows the comet from 9 minutes before close approach until 10 minutes after close approach, 1005-1024UT, hazy skies and the comet moving at 9.7' per hour (resulting in short exposures) did not allow for much detail of the comets coma and tail for each 4x10s image in the gif animation taken with a small 50mm f/5 refractor. I have also included the gif animation and images from the day before close approach.
Mike Olason
