Comet Panstarrs C/2011 L4
Comet in Western sky at sunset
For Saturday, March 16, 2013

Uploaded 3/18/13

 
 On Saturday night, a sudden clearing at sunset provided a good opportunity to shoot the comet one more time in a darker sky, with the now waxing moon interfering more each day. In a few days, the moon will wash it out, and the comet will be fading fast. I set up again on the top of the hill across from the airport, and was treated with a naked eye object which as it set into the pollen and dust, faded much more rapidly this night. The magnitude is near 0.2 and will now fade soon. The tail was only a few degrees long in the binoculars. Both of these are with the Stellarvue SV80s at f/4.6 and the Canon XTi.
5 mins total integration time consisting of ten 30 second exposures. Higher in the sky, the faint yellow coloration of the sky and comet were removed and the comet set to white. This is the most natural appearance of the comet. Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960 1600 x 1200
5 mins total integration time consisting of ten 30 second exposures. Here I left the yellow color in as it neared the horizon. Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960 1600 x 1200
Lens: 80mm f/4.6 Stellarfvue / Zeiss APO Platform: Televue GEM Exposure: 30 seconds x 10 Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 7/10, Transparency 5/10 Outside Temperature: 45F Processing Tools: Maxim DSLR, Photoshop CS2 HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS