If you must

[happy-kat]

You have to find a way.

This was a challenge as good old Wirtenan was nearing Capella, and like most wall to wall cloud was forecast. Saturday night was no exception but at about 5pm or so spotted it was looking clear, splitting hairs really as about as clear as thin mud but it was not solid cloud and I could see stars. Dash to get ready and outside, was going to use the Neodymium filter but that meant remembering where I had last put it. Virtuoso mount, Canon 1100d 85mm f1.8 lens at f4, flocked flowerpot lens shield and a huge dose of well it is great to be sat outside. Oh did I mention, there was a full Moon. Binoculars did not reveal the comet.

Although took 21 x 30 seconds ISO 100 lights (look at the competition) before the clouds went solid only 6 were useable (as long as not being fussy!). Stacked in DSS with 20 darks, 20 bias, 20 flats and 20 dark flats. Set SkySafari to the same time as the best scoring reference light and took a screen grab and rotated it to match the plate solved star mask uploaded to Astrometry identified the barely visible pixels that were the comet, yey. This meant I could mark the comet on the files for stacking in DSS. Processed in StarTools using masks and layers, made files one for the comet, one for the stars, one for Capella and one for the background. Had to use artistic license to bring a green tinge to the comet by suppressing the skyglow red. The image does not stand up to pixel peeing it is a record of the event.

The challenge if you accept it looked like this.

[happy-kat]

I had hoped to have another go tonight, there is window of clear it was dark the Moon had not appeared but the fog swirling around the street light was a step to far.