Dual comets!

 

Recent Mars photos

Green comet - C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

 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.

Mike Phillips' 2022 Solar System in review

 This year I also made a video tour in power point, thanks Leila Gharani for the great PPT morphing tips!

Here's the full photos, with labels

and without

AutoHotKey GOODNESS!

 As a longtime Sikuli user I was struggling but reluctant to move.  I dabbled in pywinauto and struggled but really didn't want a "macro" solution but I recently discovered AutoHotKey and am a convert!  Here's a few hrs work to automate AS3!

 

 

 #Requires AutoHotkey v2.0
;
;This Script will open a set of FireCaputre recordings in AutoStakkert3 and stack with defaults
;20220114 - ver 1.0
;
;FireCaputre folder
FCSaves := "E:\E-Delete\Mars2022--Expiring-20241212\Mars_2022_11_24"
;
try
    Run "C:\Users\Mike Phillips\OneDrive\D-Permanent\Software\AutoStakkert\AutoStakkert.exe"
catch
    MsgBox "File does not exist."
sleep 5000
; Consider set focus and or wait for app
;
; Sends file / open
MenuSelect "AutoStakkert",, "File", "Open AVI/SER"
sleep 100
Send "^a"
sleep 100
Send FCSaves
sleep 100
Send "!o"
;
;This section gets window postion to click into middle of diaglog box
WinGetPos &X, &Y, &W, &H, "Open your file"
;
;MsgBox "Open your file is at " X "," Y " and its size is " W "x" H
nX := Integer((X+(W/2))/2)
ny := Integer((Y+(H/2))/2)
;MsgBox "X+(W/2) = " nX " Y+(H/2) = " nY
sleep 100
MouseClick "left", nX, nY
sleep 100
MouseClick "left", nX, nY
sleep 100
Send "^a"
sleep 100
Send "^a"
sleep 100
Send "!o"
;
; This section sets Mike's favorite Mars stacking parameters
;
WinActivate "ahk_class TFormImage"
sleep 2000
SetControlDelay -1
ControlClick "TRadioButton3","ahk_class TFormImage"
sleep 100
ControlClick "TButton3","ahk_class TFormImage"
sleep 100
WinActivate "ahk_class TFormMain"
ControlClick "TRadioButton4","ahk_class TFormMain"
sleep 100
ControlClick "TButton5","ahk_class TFormMain"