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March 12, 2013 and March
16,2013
Technically this is not a photograph
from Almaden Observatory. I traveled to Henry Coe State Park
so I could get a view to the horizon and be as far away as
possible from the persistent high clouds over the Pacific. On this
date the times were
| Sunset |
7:12 |
| Civil
Dusk |
7:39 |
| Nautical Dusk |
8:08 |
The weather was better than my previous
attempt on Saturday March 9. Unfortunately some clouds
remained. These limited my view of the comet after nautical
dusk which was exactly when I would have preferred to look for
it.
At first even the one day old moon was not visible. Around
Civil dusk the thin crescent became visible. From our charts
we knew the comet should be to the south at about the same
altitude.
I first spotted the comet about 8 PM. As predicted it was
at the same level as the moon. Both were heading for the
clouds.
4 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 135mm with Canon 28-135 zoom
I followed both down, but as they
descended into the clouds we lost the comet.
I may try for a picture later in the
week using my 900mm Orion telescope, but that will require another
good night like last night.
All of the pictures were taken using a Canon 20Da on a fixed tripod.
Back at Henry Coe. The weather forecast was for scattered high clouds, but the west horizon looked clear. Well that forecast did not turn out. It was virtually completely overcast, but the west still had some breaks. There was a large cloud right where I expected the comet to be setting. Fortunately I was looking in the wrong place! One of the other observers spotted the comet north of where I was looking in a relatively clear patch of sky. These are the best of the images. Both were taken at 8:24 PM (3-17 03:24 UTC) at ISO 800 with an Orion ED-100 on an Orion Skyview Pro mount.
Processed with PixInsight
JPEG from camera with minimal processing
