Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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Comet ZTF Greeting Mars, astropical
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Comet ZTF Greeting Mars

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Comet ZTF Greeting Mars, astropical
Powered byPixInsight

Comet ZTF Greeting Mars

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Description

ZTF is around for quite a while. Not that I dislike comets, all the time it was hidden behind clouds or drowned in artificial light. Yesterday evening, ZTF was high up near the zenith next to Mars, so I captured as many frames as possible of the comet hidden behind thin haze in between gaps of thick clouds.

After a lax selection 25 frames were somewhat acceptable while the DSS stack file came up almost white (due to passing clouds and haze). I made two stacks, one with round stars, the other one aligned on the comet and blended in Photoshop CS2. The "Stars+Comet" stacking mode in DSS did not yield the desired result (nice comet but trailing stars).

In order to avoid spikes around bright stars I threaded a 77mm to 52mm step down ring on the wide opened lens. This equals to f/2.4, I'd say.

The 30-seconds exposed 25 frames were taken between 19:24 and 20:07 LT = 42 minutes, integration of used frames = 12.5 minutes. Please be mercyful, this is my first comet capture and comet processing while I am still hovering on a cloud. Need no chocolates for Valentine's Day.

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Comet ZTF Greeting Mars, astropical