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.
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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
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