Comet 46P/Wirtanen
in the evening sky
December 12, 2018

 
 This
            comet presents a challenging target for imagers of all skill
            levels. Long deep exposures such as this for a fast moving comet
            reveal intricate faint details, but are very intensive to process
            correctly. Here, the comet was processed separately using a new
            powerful combine method and the stars were processed separately
            as well. The two images were then aligned and registered with
            the first image in the set for high accuracy. Color was added
            in a similar fashion. The faint tail is seen as a dim ray heading
            off to the lower right. A slightly brighter appendage to the
            upper left may be an anti tail, as it is very near orbital plane
            crossing at this time.
 

            


            
 Click
            here for a larger 1400 sized image


            
Field here
            is about 3 x2 degrees


Lens:  10" f/3.9 Astrograph with Baader MPCC coma corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
Camera: SBIG ST10xme
Exposure:  90m
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  7/10, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  30F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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