Periodic comet 10P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 2, was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1873. It orbits the Sun every 5.37 years, so it has made about 27 orbits since its discovery. This time around, it made its closest approach to the Sun on August 2 and its closest approach to Earth on August 3, when it was just 0.41 astronomical units away from Earth. At its brightest it was about magnitude 8, visible in binoculars but not with the naked eye.

There were reports and images of a very thin dust tail, but it does not appear in this photo. What does appear is a bright nucleus surrounded by a hazy blue coma. The nucleus looks a little elongated because of the comet's movement during the time these exposures were taken.

Image details: 25 exposures of 60 seconds each, taken with a Dwarf Mini telescope.

August 15, 2026