Far Thee Well Catalina...A parting shot.

[Leveye]

A morning of miracles..After falling asleep to a monsoon I awoke around 5 to nothing but quiet..Could it be? No. Ok lets take a look..OMG CLEAR SKIES! I grabbed the only rig I could put together that quick. A camera tripod and DSLR with my newly acquired 70's Nikkor ED 180mm f2.8. It was a struggle at first, new lens and no idea exactly where the comet was now. I focused the best I could on a bright star and was off trying to locate it in liveview previews....Ahrrrhh there ya be! 

I was able to get 70 keepers out of 100 at 6 seconds wide open @ ISO 6k. That gave me the shortest trails at that focal length. For what it is I think it came out pretty good. I'm really thankful to the powers that be for alas the comet is getting too far north for me to image from my favorite spot. The forecast looks bad for the next week at least so this may be it for me and the comet. I really like how the 3 brightest stars in the field framed it. A perfect parting shot. Let me know what you think.

Far thee well Catalina it's been nice.

[saac]

What a lovely photograph - I agree the framing is perfect.  

Jim

[hawklord2011]

Great pic I'm still hoping to catch a view before its gone forever!

[Ruud]

It's beautiful!

And a little sad.

[SkyJamie]

That turned out great Leveye!

Were the lights taken at f2.8?

[laudropb]

Very nice image. I have enjoyed the views when clouds have permitted.

[Leveye]

That turned out great Leveye!

Were the lights taken at f2.8?

Thank you and thanks everyone at SL!   Yes f2.8 for everything. These Nikkor ED lenses are wonderful. I can't wait to use it on my tracking mount and get some real long exposures using it. I want Antares region and M78 bad.

[Leveye]

My Nikkor ED lens is a 1981 copy btw. Only made this particular version for 1 year. Just noticed I said 70's