Comet TA in broad daylight (and the Moon and Venus)
bright comet in the daytime sky
Uploaded 10/5/24
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set of 3 images were taken around 10 am and with a monochrome
camera + filters. The goal today was to be the first in the world
to record comet TA in broad daylight since it was around first
magnitude. Unfortunately, the terrible forest fire smoke blown
in from California and northern Arizona is still quite prevalent.
It was a tad clearer today and so I tried anyway. I achieved
my goal and was the first to record the comet against a bright
blue sky. One day later, someone in europe did the same. It is
a very competitive field! |  |
Two (colorized) images of the comet are shown
here. Both images taken a few minutes apart I
moved the telescope to make sure the comet was
real, and not a reflection or glare. It actually shows
the comets head shape pretty well. Extreme stretching
of the data was required to reveal this set of images.
thats why the optical artifacts show at the edges of
the field.
Select an image size for a larger view:
1400 x 1200
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While shooting the comet, I made sure the setting circles
were working ok, and dialed up the planet Venus. It is
on the far side of the sun, so is a small round disk.
Select an image size for a larger view:
1400 x 1200
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The moon was also in the daytime sky and I shot it for another
test of the pointing accuracy. this moon is about 2 days old.
Select an image size for a larger view:
1400 x 1200
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Instrument: 10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian with Baader MPCC
Mount: Astrophysics 1200 QMD
Camera: Lunar/Planetary ASI183MM
Exposure: 5ms
Location: Payson, Arizona, Elevation: 5150 ft.
Sky: Seeing FWHM = 2 arcsec , Transparency 3/10
Outside Temperature: 85 F
Image Processing Tools:
Maxim DL6: Calibration, Color Conversion, aligning, stacking
PixInsight: Saturation Curves
Photoshop CS2: Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup
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