46P & The Pleiades - 2018-12-16

[PhotoGav]

My prayers and sacrifices to the Sky Gods were heard and answered - a window of clarity opened at around midnight last night and while the seeing was atrocious, I had to have a go at imaging 46P as it slipped past the Pleiades. This image consists of 75 x 60s with a Canon EOS 1Dx and 70-200mm lens at 200mm, ISO800, f2.8, tracked with a Star Adventurer. Shot between 00:19 and 01:37. I'm delighted to have got something of this part of 46P's journey, but I need to work on my comet / stars background DSS processing techniques as there is still a bit of streaking around the comet from the DSS stack. Anyway, I'm very happy to have been given the chance at this one.

[Davey-T]

Looks good to my eyes Gav, can't see any streaks at full size.

I had the SWSA set up for hours waiting in vain for the cloud to shift 

Dave

[Vixen4eva]

Fantastic image!!!

Regards

Alan

[PhotoGav]

4 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Looks good to my eyes Gav, can't see any streaks at full size.

I had the SWSA set up for hours waiting in vain for the cloud to shift 

Dave

Thanks Dave. This is not an image for the Pixel-Peepers!!! You must have dodgy old eyes ?. I followed your progress, or lack of it, in the Observing 46P thread last night and felt your frustration. Conditions were far from ideal here in Wiltshire, hazy cloud rapidly flooding in through the hour and a bit of this data collection, but I wasn't going to let that put me off!

6 minutes ago, Vixen4eva said:

Fantastic image!!!

Regards

Alan

Thank you Alan. These opportunities don't come along that often, so I was delighted to be able to give it a go!

[MartinFransson]

Oh, that is the image I would have liked to take myself Really nice framing and processing. Excellent!

[Paul M]

I quite like the "rough and ready" quality of the image 

 

 

[orion25]

Brilliant image, Gav! And the pairing with the Pleiads is the icing on the cake  

Reggie

[petevasey]

Well done, Gav.  Beautiful capture. I'm even greener than Wirtanen with envy!  Weeks ago I'd worked out exactly how I was going to image this superb encounter at varying focal lengths and of course it was solid cloud all night here in NE England.  Sod's law in spades.  In fact it was cloudy on Saturday night and tonight as well, so no chance of a wider field effort, and now the Moon will be in the way until after Christmas..  Grrr ?

I see you've entered this one in the challenge - good luck!

Cheers,

Peter

[Laurin Dave]

Lovely image Gav, I'm pleased the clouds cleared for you..  

Dave

[bob-c]

Great image.

Bob.

[Scooot]

Thats a great image Gav. It’s a striking view with the Pleiades  

[Hawksmoor]

Excellent image and a beautiful composition.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you for your kind comments. Who said luck doesn’t come in to play with astrophotography?!?!