Retrograde
05-10-2024, 12:30 PM
Yesterday morning I managed to finally capture C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in the brightening pre-dawn sky.
Earlier in the week I travelled up to the Sunshine Coast to visit family . With the weather forecast looking good for Friday morning, I had an opportunity to get to a good location overlooking the ocean facing east at Point Cartwright. As I was heading out at 4am I found the road completely blocked with night roadworks and I was diverted onto a road I was completely unfamiliar with! After a couple of U-turns & double-backs I realised I just had to continue and eventually worked out the new circular route that would get me to my desired location, albeit with a 15min delay.
There was still a line of low cloud on the horizon & I couldn't immediately spot the comet in the direction I was expecting (I don't 't have binos with me) but suddenly spotted it rather easily naked-eye a bit north of & higher than where I expected. It would've been better to catch it earlier when the sky was darker but I had to take what I could get.
This image is a 2 sec exposure with a Pentax K-5 at 800 ISO through a Samyang 135mm lens at f2. Despite the far from dark sky, the comet stood out fairly well so It must be quite bright.
Thanks for looking,
Pete.
Earlier in the week I travelled up to the Sunshine Coast to visit family . With the weather forecast looking good for Friday morning, I had an opportunity to get to a good location overlooking the ocean facing east at Point Cartwright. As I was heading out at 4am I found the road completely blocked with night roadworks and I was diverted onto a road I was completely unfamiliar with! After a couple of U-turns & double-backs I realised I just had to continue and eventually worked out the new circular route that would get me to my desired location, albeit with a 15min delay.
There was still a line of low cloud on the horizon & I couldn't immediately spot the comet in the direction I was expecting (I don't 't have binos with me) but suddenly spotted it rather easily naked-eye a bit north of & higher than where I expected. It would've been better to catch it earlier when the sky was darker but I had to take what I could get.
This image is a 2 sec exposure with a Pentax K-5 at 800 ISO through a Samyang 135mm lens at f2. Despite the far from dark sky, the comet stood out fairly well so It must be quite bright.
Thanks for looking,
Pete.