I went out last night (15th) to quickly image comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon. After I got a shot I thought I would try comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. I have never seen a comet show up like this. Lemmon looks typically like several other comets I have shot, but 12P looks like a boated star. I thought I was just in the wrong place at first but no. From my locale the field is located in the west in a very light polluted sky as I am looking towards Midwest City and Tinker AFB. Spaceweather. com has told of outbursts with this comet and I thought I might be able to view the “horns” but instead I got this. First is Lemmon then Pons-Brook. The two field stars down to the left are about 7.5 mag. Both comets were shot at the same magnification.
Very interesting. I also really like to image comets. What equipment were you using? Both comets are pretty faint. Not sure if I would be able image them with my setup.
Thanks…
Stan
I was using an Orion XX12g Truss Tube GoTo Dobsonian with a TeleVue 27mm Panoptic EP and an iPhone 13 Pro Max with NightCap app.
Here is some of the space weather article.
Those are some really significant outbursts!
Clint,
Thanks for the information. I thought that might have been through an iPhone. I have tried that but with not much luck. Yours were very nice.
I went out last night and tried to image Comet Pons. I have a lot of trees so finding a good spot can sometimes be a challenge. I setup in what I thought was a good spot but the trees got me about half through my session. I went ahead and stacked them today. It is not very good but at least I was able to observe and image it. Need more frames and less moon light. But at least I got another comet under the belt.
My equipment used:
Canon 70D camera – Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
SkyWatcher GTi Mount – Apertura carbon Fiber Tripod – Apertura 155-Watt Power Supply
ASIAir Plus
Processed:
Astro Pixel Processor - 33 lights - 20 flats - 10 - Darks - 10 Bias
Photoshop
Very nice!
Hard work finding a good spot, but you managed. I’m enjoying the view, thanks!
Got this image of 12P/Pons-Brooks this evening in College Station, TX.
15 minutes of 4 sec subs, autostacked on my Unistellar eVscope 2. Also captured a 20 min citizen science mission that was uploaded to SETI.
I found it the last two nights too, it’s up pretty high in the Western sky. I just put a reducer on my OTA, so I didn’t feel like trying to image it. I looked just like Mitche’s photo with that fuzz ball around it.