Sitting around for 6 months in my 'Latest' workflow folder I found this in some decent seeing. I was setup in a spot to dodge the trees for Mars and found a small gap to hit Jupiter while I waited!
Click the above link for past seasons, icons below for current season.
I've got a good wide field setup and wanted lots of the tail but for some reason the tail is really on faint side of my setup or the light dome of Raleigh but I got it 2x times this week and it is great to see how much changes the comet goes through in a short period of time.
January 23rd 2023
January 27th 2023
For the extra curious, yes there are TWO tails, a dust tail and gas tail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail
The dust tail that is a trail of dust that is left behind as it travels through space and the gas tail is created by the warming from the sun and ALWAYS points away from the sun. This is why you will see the tails in different directions. In my January 23rd photo they're nearly 180 degrees offset.
Full res here - https://i.imgur.com/920FNWb.jpeg
Other wide field shots here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/DrBxobexE9qLU8kbA
or
https://imgur.com/gallery/bFo3ZxQ
I was trialing out
my new iOptron CEM120 with a few, smaller scopes to push my
wide-field
skills. I noticed something concerning
right out of the gate with the C8i and overly simple right angle bracket that
was not properly aligned on the axis of the OTA's rotation. I was worried the mount was off so I swapped
this setup:
For this one!
I removed the 4" Achromatic refractor and placed a better quality but smaller 200mm zoom lens in it's place. It's the same imaging setup, a Canon 60Da with 200mm Canon EF 70-200 mm f4L IS USM that was on the Orange tube (the photo is old but the rest is the same. I used the main OTA to do the guiding, which I know is overkill but it works!
I'm pretty happy with the results on the CEM120 and now need to figure out astroberry or get a 2nd Win10 computer for NINA!
