Comet Pons/Brooks inside Open Cluster NGC6791 in Lyra
in the evening sky
12/25/23

 
 This
            comet, which is now around 10th magnitude is incoming, and will
            be closest in a few months. But it is in the western sky right
            after sunset and dips behind the pine trees from my observatory
            in Payson. I set up on this night well before dark, and was able
            to get the comet centered in the cameras field. 15 minutes before
            actual dark, I started shooting and...2 minutes later it was
            gone, behind a tree bough! So it is heading towards the zenith,
            but is not quite there yet. Surprisingly, this shot came out
            pretty good. I shot it with a color camera just because of this
            might happen. The comet is clearly teal colored against the yellow
            glows from the stars in the cluster. Oh yeah, it was a 98% moon
            too.

            
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:  ASI071MC Pro CMOS OSC cooled
Exposure:  2mins
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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