Comet 246P / NEAT ED80 (barely)

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

After seeing Lee's nice pic through his 8" scope I wondered if I could image it through my short ED80.

If it wasn't for the digital display on my new mount and Stellarium with the latest star and comet maps, I would have had a hard time finding this thing. I think it might be the faintest comet I've shooted to date.

The 2 stars it's sandwiched between are magnitude 15.7 and 15.5, the comet being barely a magnitude or two brighter. It was even hard finding it looking at the full frame shot. 29 minutes all up, Kson ED80 at f5.5, unmodified Pentax K-x, no filters, cropped and resampled 200%.

[John Hothersall]

Nice try, had a quick go myself and it is difficult as it's now at 14th mag although moving very slowly.

John.

[Lee]

Nice one.... getting faint now - if it weren't for the web/planetarium software/plate solving and goto mounts I wouldn't stand a chance of finding these babies!

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks John and Lee. It's a hard target for a small scope, but I really needed a comet fix lol.