C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

[Muc]

Took advantage of the later moon rise this week and headed out to a rural location to try and catch C/2022 E3 (ZTF) this evening. Got there at about 19:30, Arcturus was getting low but the bright star in Corona Boraelis was still high enough. The Milky Way was starting to become visible. Star hopped from Arcturus up to the crown, made easy with the RACI and Stellarium on the phone. From Alpha CB it was an easy two star skip to Delta. Identified the field stars at 36x. Couldn't make it out at the start but sky still had some darkness to go. After about 10 mins I had a hint. Went to 60x which helped by giving a little more contrast and keeping Delta CB out of the field of view and was satisfied I was seeing it. It's about 11.5 mag I think. Just the usual barely visible fuzz but happy that I got it. Nice and hassle free, 120mm achro on SkyTee. Back home at 9 for a cuppa and some chilling. Going to try track it from here on in, a nice Winter 22 project.

.

[Paul M]

Good capture.

I tried on Friday night from a fairly dark rural site with my 127 Mak. I've reunited it with its Celestron SLT (NexStar) mount, which I mostly dislike, as a grab-and-go visual scope.

By the time I got sorted and heading towards CBr the Moon was already washing out the Milkyway. The SLT mount can only be slewed with the handset and with back-lash it makes star hopping and scanning an area difficult. Having star aligned it was possible to enter the RA/Dec of the comet as provided by SkySafari on my phone.. bang goes more dark adaptation!!!... anyway, long story short, I spent some time slewing round the area but never really got a definite fix. I've read that it is still very stellar in appearance so maybe I missed the nucleus without recognizing it; I'm very much out of practice of stooping over an eyepiece!

There were high hopes for this comet but I'm getting the feeling it'll be yet another that slopes off into perhelion twilight with little fanfare  

[andrew63]

Glad to hear you saw it. Looks like it could be a good comet with a nice tail.☄️

Edited October 18, 2022 by andrew63

[Muc]

Your experience Paul makes me glad I stayed away from GoTo!

Cheers Andrew, I could detect it's was not stellar, hopefully it will show its tail in the coming months

[Paul M]

2 hours ago, Muc said:

Your experience Paul makes me glad I stayed away from GoTo!

Don't be too put off GOTO. My EQ6 Pro would have put the target bang on. It's just this SLT mount that isn't that great. 

I'm hoping this comet will come to life soon. I'll have another go at the weekend from my dark site if it's clear. It's not well place for seeing from home. 

There is definitely a lack of accessible comets at the moment.

[Davesellars]

Well done on spotting it!  I'd give it a go with the dob tonight but the transparency is awful...  I have the 120ST capturing it at the moment instead...

[Paul M]

@Davesellars

That's a great capture. Pretty little comet! Is that just one sub from an imaging run or is that a stack already?

[Davesellars]

Hi Paul!  Many thanks!  This was using Sharpcap live stacking with the 120ST (thus bloated stars!!!) -  It was approx 40 subs x 15 seconds using the ASI 178MM camera.  Actually the first few subs showed really clearly but then conditions were terrible through haze and cloud so I let it run for a while to improve the Signal to Noise ratio only.

Dave.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Davesellars