Comet 62P skims the Leo Trio of Galaxies
in the morning sky
12/27/23

 
 One
            day before closest approach I was able to get this shot with
            a 100% moon blazing overhead. The comet is nearing its brightest
            now, and to beat the moonlight I went 1 hour per color for an
            RGB set total of 3 hours. The gradients were awful, but surprisingly
            a small amount of a faint ray tail is shown.

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1600 x 1200
            


Lens:  10" f/2.9 GSO Astrograph Newtonian w/Nexus corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
Camera:  Atik 16200 CCD
Exposure:  3 hours total
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  7/10, Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature:  32F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2

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