Comet Ison buzzing the beehive and Mars

[melsky]

It's only a little blob but it's there my first image of Comet Ison. It was raining heavily when I left home at 2:30am Sunday morning to drive to a dark site with a good view to the NW but the forecast said it would clear soon. I patiently waited until the clouds parted, with less time to setup I decided to concentrate on a wide field shot with my Astrotrac to get Mars and M44 in the same shot instead of setting up the Takahashi and autoguider and going just for the comet, I used the 200mm lens on my astro modded Canon600D to shoot a series of exposures to stack later. I ended up using only 18 images as the later ones revealed the approaching dawn lighting up the background sky and overwhelming the faint comet.

I'm pleased with the result and look forward to more opportunities as the comet brightens on its way in towards the sun.

Mel

[badgerchap]

Good work! Can't wait for this to get closer in

Typed inexpertly from my phone

[JamesF]

Excellent. Looks like Mars & M44 might make a good target, too.

James

[runoffshed]

Great shot, Mel - and nice graphics to clarify exactly where it is!

[Dave]

Fabulous stuff. Nice shot indeed.