EarthSky Community Photos

Submit your photo here. Comment or upvote on photo pages. Search via photographers' names. More improvements coming! To help, please donate.

Steven Bellavia
Southold, NY
02/29/2024
07:25 pm

Equipment Details:

Borg 90FL f/4 fluorite apochromatic refractor
ZWO ASI 183MC Pro camera
SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro equatorial mount

Post-processing Details:

Used PixInsight to calibrate, align and stack 32 x 120-second exposures, along with darks, flats, and dark-flats
Used the comet alignment feature, along with star removal via StarXterminator, to stack just the comet, without stars, and bring the stars back in after
This was my third attempt this week to capture the comet. Though still low, and mostly in a twilight sky, there was no moon up this time, revealing more of it's long tail and faint details.

Image Details:

Comet 12P Pons-Brooks, is the 12th periodic comet discovered since 1P Halley, with an orbital period of 71 years, very similar to Halley's comet. It was discovered in 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons and then confirmed by William Robert Brooks in 1883.
The comet nucleus is estimated to be around 30 km in diameter.