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This bright
12th magnitude comet is currently very near the big face on spiral
M51 in Ursa Major. It is one of the brightest comets in the sky
currently, and displays a very nice white dust tail, with a touch
of green near the central coma. This comet may reach naked eye
in June of next year.
Three images are
provided here. The first is a "standard" image with
the comet stationary and the stars moved by in the 24 minutes
of exposure. This exemplifies the star colors very well! (Multiple
images of the RGB frame was trailed across the star images to
color them)
The second image
is with both stars and comet stationary and the comet image data
was stacked upon the first frame in the sequence. Then the stars
were stacked over that same single frame.
The third frame
Ive marked some of the numerous galaxies that appear in this
image. Interestingly enough, just by shooting this with the 12.5"
rather than the 10" I gained over a magnitude in penetration.
19th mag and fainter galaxies are plentiful in this field. Note
the nice trio of 18.7 mag galaxies to the right of the comet.
The faint on on the right side of the trio is mag 19.5.
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Lens: 12.5" f/5 Home bult Newtonian
Platform: Astrophysics AP1200
Exposure: LRGB = 24:3:3:3
Location: Payson, Arizona
Elevation: 5150 ft.
Sky: Seeing 7/10, Transparency 6/10
Outside Temperature: 30F
Processing Tools: Maxim DL6, Photoshop CS2
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