Comet Encke
in the Morning sky
September 26, 2023

 
 This
            10.5 magnitude object is much smaller than Hartley 2 seen the
            same morning, but has the first vestiges of a ray like tail seen
            here faintly. May brighten to 7.5 by next month, but will be
            much closer to the sun. I had to barely see it before morning
            twilight at 4:52am over the east wall, so am not too optomistic
            of a better view!

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1400 x 1200
            


Scope:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian + Baader MPCC 2 coma corrector
Camera: Atik 16200 CCD
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
Exposure:  18 mins RGB bin 2
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  7/10, Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature:  52F
Processing Tools:  PI, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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