Comet Hartley - 06 Oct

[brianb]

Finally got a decent shot of this comet. A little interference from high cloud, hence the haze around the brighter stars.

Canon 40D, 300mm f/4, 11 x 60 sec @ f/4, stacked in DSS. Central exposure time 0321 UT.

[russ]

Looks good Brian. I've not had a chance to see it yet. How did you find it looked visually?

[bus_ter]

With everyone saying how hard this is to see I'm impressed that you captured this with just a 300mm lens!

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[brianb]

How did you find it looked visually?

Naked eye: just about suspected with averted vision in a pristine dark sky - a little harder than M33. The rich Milky Way background doesn't help as there are lots of stars which can be confused with a "fuzzy" close to the limit of vision.

10x50 bins: unmistakeable, fuzzy blob about half the diameter of the moon; slightly elliptical but no obvious tail.

80mm refractor x24: similar but brighter & bigger

280mm SCT x70: similar but brighter & bigger (fills most of the field of view). Nuclear condensation (not the true nucleus) seen.