Comet Catalina US10
in the evening sky
March 10, 2016

 
 This
            comet continues to be a stunning photographic object, now well
            placed in the north western sky after sundown. Now at mag 8,
            the comet shows a spine like ray tail composed almost totally
            of dust. There is however still a bit of cyan to the head as
            seen here, showing some gas activity as well. The comet is moving
            more slowly now, as indicated by the shorter trails of the background
            stars while keeping the nucleus sharp by following the comet.
 

            
 Click
            here for a larger 1290 sized image


            
Field here
            is about 1.5 degrees


Lens:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph with Baader MPCC coma corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200 
Camera: SBIG ST10XME
Exposure:  LRGB = 40:4:4:4
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  4/10, Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature:  40F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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