The comet and the stars

[petevasey]

I've just realised that perhaps I should have posted this here instead of in the Deep Sky section.  But if the moderators wish to delete one or other of the entries, that's fine by me!  On the evening of 15th December comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS was due to pass close to the bright Open Cluster NGC 1528 in Perseus. Unfortunately that evening was clouded out during the short 'window' of darkness before a bright (85%) Moon rose. Fortunately the following night (16th) was clear, the comet was still in the vicinity of the cluster although of course not as close, and I was able to capture several images before the Moon again rose later. So this is the result of 12 x 5 minute images using my modified Canon 700D with TSFLAT2 on the Meade 127 refractor. I'd never imaged NGC 1528 before and think it deserves closer attention - at magnitude 6.4 it's certainly a binocular object. I'm surprised that Messier didn't include it in his catalogue.

Cheers,

Peter

[Debo]

Very nice image, I had a go at imaging this comet last night and got some reasonable results.

I'm having trouble stacking my images (comet & stars) with DSS it wont let me select the position of the comet for some reason (very clear in the subs) just wondering if you used DSS for your image or some other software ?

[petevasey]

I used mainly Deep Sky Stacker, although finished off in Photoshop.  And had problems accurately selecting the comet until I remembered to press and hold 'Shift' while moving the cursor over the comet.  That might help.

Best of luck,

Peter

Edited December 18, 2019 by petevasey

[happy-kat]

That's a great capture of the comet and with tail. I'll have to see if it's in my visible night space.

[Radman40]

Excellent work. Nice colours in the image.