Comet Siding Springs  C/2013 A1
in the evening sky
9/28/14

 
 Here
            is my first image of the comet which in a few weeks will be nearly
            impacting the planet Mars. The comet is currently around 10th
            magnitude, and is EXTREMELY low in southern Scorpius near the
            pair of stars Iota Scorpii. The seeing and transparency at 5
            degrees up in the south west is very poor, but I was able to
            get in 10 minutes total integration time with the Stellarvue
            SV80s from the very corner of the balcony on the second floor
            of our house. I have keyed the photo becasue the comet is so
            dim, so you can see its position.
 

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1290 x 960
            



Lens:  Stellarvue / Zeiss APO at f/4.8
Platform:  Televue GEM
Exposure:  10m
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  1/10, Transparency 2/10
Outside Temperature:  58F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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