Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) framing and exposure testing

[Jonk]

I had an opportunity last night, now that the comet was high enough at a reasonable hour, to see what I needed to do to get a decent image.

Around 20:30 there was a break in the clouds long enough to have a look.

I decided on 180s in LRGB rotation (So L, R, G, B, L, R, G, B....). I used a QSI683 and Star71 combo, Astrodon LRGB filters.

I didn't get enough to warrant any stacking or processing, but what I did manage to do was get a handful of frames to produce a very rough and ready animation. This is a low quality gif just for sharing here.

This enables me to plan for when I get a 3-4 hour window in the next few nights, and also shows how fast it was. This movement was over about 20 minutes!

You can also clearly see the tails, so this also helps with framing (although I won't rotate to suit).

I may set up a DSLR with 400mm lens to capture the RGB all at the same time for a colour animation, we'll see.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Jonk