Due to unfavourable weather I missed grabbing a shot of this comet when it was closer to earth and at its best. This was taken last weekend from the outskirts of Melbourne. I also swung the scope around to the south and took a shot of C/2017 K2 Panstarrs to find it still had a bit of a tail showing. A 6 inch Newt and a Canon 550d was used to take 15 x 30sec subs of each comet @ 1600 iso.
Not bad! Found it difficult to bag these due to Weather luckily was a clear night when closest to Mars..done both these comets also around the same date you did. Was surprised how long panstarrs tail actually is with 5 min exposures! Much longer than ZTF.
Hope to try again when the moon isn't in the way!
Thanks Garyh, I was disappointed with the outcome from these shots on the 18th Feb. There were periods of thin high cloud and C/2017 Panstarrs K2 was in the glow of Melbourne's light dome. Panstarrs was an after thought after shooting C/2022 e3 ZTF which appeared quite faint and near impossible to locate without a GOTO mount. There's been some really nice shots posted of it taken earlier in February but not any taken around this date so I'd love to see what you managed on that night.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,481
Hi Mick
Nice shots. Bad luck with the weather. Don’t worry. You’re going to have plenty of time to have another go at Panstaars. It’s an enormous comet, estimated to have a nucleus between 30-160km and a coma as big as Jupiter. It only fades 4 magnitudes over the whole year, 0.3 magnitude per month. Plenty of time to get clear of Melbourne and have another go.
