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Another Early Morning Comet


PeterStudz

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Second time lucky! I was up very early yesterday morning only to be greeted (despite the forecast) with clouds. But this time it was worth getting up at silly o’clock in order to spot comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Up at 4:30am and looking outside there were some high clouds, but fortunately clearing away to the SW. Transparency OK but I’ve had better.  At least I could easily see the keystone of Hercules! Got the 200p Dob on EQ platform to cool and made a coffee. Tried to see the comet in binoculars but failed. Started observing with the Dob around 5am. 

I’m in Southampton - Bortle 7 - so star hopping can be a chore. But all I did was line up on Eta Her in the Hercules Keystone and go straight up for glory, looking in the 9x50 RACI and back to the low power StarGuider 25mm eyepiece every now and then. The idea being that I could go back and do a more sensible star hop if I couldn’t find it. But no need as I spotted the comet quickly. Could only just see it in the finder but in the eyepiece it immediately jumped out as something I haven’t seen before. Like an out of focus star surrounded by a fuzzy patch of slightly elongated light. 

I switched on the EQ platform and played around with a few eyepieces. Looked best in the StarGuider 12mm. Then, at about 5:45am I had a go at taking some smartphone snaps. Just using the 25mm in order to reduce any star trailing. Was pleasantly surprised to get the max exposure of 30 seconds for my iPhone with minimal star trailing. The single shot snaps are just cropped and rotated so that north is up. No other editing although I might try later - can definitely be improved. And the light pollution skyglow is annoying! Must invest in a better 25mm-ish as I’ve had to crop to remove some of the worse distorted stars around the edges. Won’t win any prizes but apart from colour the snaps are a good representation of what I could see in the eyepiece. The second image is just with the camera 2x zoom 

Finished off by looking at M13. I haven’t seen that in a while! Brighter than the comet (obvious in the RACI) but about the same sort of size. After yet another coffee and feeling a bit cold, I finally packed up at about 6:20am.

This is the first comet that I’ve seen in a telescopes and only the second comet that I’ve seen in my life. The other being Hale–Bopp. But then you could see that out of the window at a sensible hour. 

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16 minutes ago, Kon said:

Excellent report and glad you saw it. I have been up T 5 the past two mornings to be greeted by clouds. Third time lucky tomorrow morning?

Outstanding pictures from a mobile!

Thanks @Kon , I’m certainly not a morning person but it was nice being out early and seeing the sunrise etc. I might do similar tomorrow morning and as it’s not a school night my daughter might be able to join and have a look. That’s if she wants to get out of bed that early. It’s not like the summer!

And good luck. Although diffuse I was surprised that it was that bright. You should get a better view being in a darker location.

The images are in RAW format so I’ll have a go at editing. Haven’t had the time today. 

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Amazing work Peter and very nice infos you share with us...I hope you can take more photos of the comet and stack them...can you give me more information about your platform...ok having the same DOB and want to buy one platform 

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32 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

Thanks @Kon , I’m certainly not a morning person but it was nice being out early and seeing the sunrise etc. I might do similar tomorrow morning and as it’s not a school night my daughter might be able to join and have a look. That’s if she wants to get out of bed that early. It’s not like the summer!

And good luck. Although diffuse I was surprised that it was that bright. You should get a better view being in a darker location.

The images are in RAW format so I’ll have a go at editing. Haven’t had the time today. 

My family wants to join as well but at silly hour with frost it will be hard to get them out. Forecast is looking good with clear skies untill 5 so it has to be 4am wake up for me.

Looking forward if you do more editing on them. Your DIY platform is working very well!

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On 20/01/2023 at 21:55, ankwste said:

Amazing work Peter and very nice infos you share with us...I hope you can take more photos of the comet and stack them...can you give me more information about your platform...ok having the same DOB and want to buy one platform 

Hi, and thank you. I’ve been busy the last few days so only just had time to reply.  I haven’t got a PC/computer at home so stacking at the moment is out for me! The EQ platform is home made via the excellent instructions on here…


I’ve modified mine a little. Eg larger external battery & limiting microswitch, but it’s basically the same. There’s also a method of doing a rough polar alignment for increased accuracy. But once you have that I mark the position on the ground in my garden. Then all I have to do is place it there and make sure it’s nice and level. 

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On 20/01/2023 at 21:55, Kon said:

My family wants to join as well but at silly hour with frost it will be hard to get them out. Forecast is looking good with clear skies untill 5 so it has to be 4am wake up for me.

Looking forward if you do more editing on them. Your DIY platform is working very well!

I tried again but went back to be as there was high cloud once more. But I see from another thread that you managed to see it. Rewarding isn’t it!

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4 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

I tried again but went back to be as there was high cloud once more. But I see from another thread that you managed to see it. Rewarding isn’t it!

Yes it was great seeing it. Tonight is good according to MET, but currently foggy.

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4 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Hi, and thank you. I’ve been busy the last few days so only just had time to reply.  I haven’t got a PC/computer at home so stacking at the moment is out for me! The EQ platform is home made via the excellent instructions on here…


I’ve modified mine a little. Eg larger external battery & limiting microswitch, but it’s basically the same. There’s also a method of doing a rough polar alignment for increased accuracy. But once you have that I mark the position on the ground in my garden. Then all I have to do is place it there and make sure it’s  ice and level. 

Thank you again for information and thank you for your time ...hope in that year I'll manage to built one...it helps a lot in DeepSky Photography and also in visual observation 

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3 hours ago, Kon said:

Yes it was great seeing it. Tonight is good according to MET, but currently foggy.

I’ve noticed similar here. At the moment we have drizzle but it’s forecast to clear in the early hours. Conditions after rain can be good so I plan to give it a go too. 

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3 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

I’ve noticed similar here. At the moment we have drizzle but it’s forecast to clear in the early hours. Conditions after rain can be good so I plan to give it a go too. 

Managed it again tonight, my wife was impressed although she did say 'this smudge?'🤣

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