Comet 21P/Giacombini-Zinner
in the Morning sky
September 1, 2018

 
 I
            have been imaging this comet for many returns now, and this one
            appears to be the best yet. Here, a narrow window in the monsoon
            clouds allowed a set of shots with the 60% moon nearby early
            in the morning hours. The sky was very bright, and extremely
            blue in color from the moons glow. Also, the comet is moving
            very rapidly, like 4 arc minutes per hour in a very rich Milkyway
            field, making processing challenging. Hoping for better conditions
            during the next dark of the moon in a week or so to go much deeper!
 

            
 Click
            here for a larger 1290 sized image


            
Field here
            is about 1 degree


Lens:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph with Baader MPCC coma corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200 
Camera: SBIG ST10XME
Exposure:  36m
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  3/10, Transparency 3/10
Outside Temperature:  50F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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