[Mickoid (Michael)]

Based on a narrow band of clear sky occurring at around 10.00pm last night, I knew this would be my last window of opportunity from here in Melbourne to catch comet Wirtanen 46P.

Despite it's brightness, this has been a disappointing object, with the tail obscured behind the head of the comet, it has failed to excite the observer. As it is quickly travelling north, it will soon be too low to photograph, even if it does decide to show a tail. Adding to that, the waxing moon is washing out the darkness from the sky.

This shot, taken from the outskirts of Melbourne, suffers from a combination of mild light pollution and a waxing moon, post first quarter, which has sucked out the colour. It consists of 30 sec @ f 5.6 and 60 sec @ f 8 exposures at 1600 iso, through the Sigma 50 - 200mm apo lens at 200mm on a modded Canon 550d mounted to a Sightron Nano Tracker which captured 46 P approaching the M45 cluster.

The close up was taken on the 11th of December through a Tamron 500mm mirror lens @ f 8, 1600 iso and Canon 550d mounted on an HEQ5pro EQ mount. It was produced with a stack of 5 x 2min subs in DSS registered on the comet's nucleus.