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Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks in SE Australia. 12P Pons-Brookes first became visible on or around April 27. I have been sick with a chest infection during most of the apparition. Fortunately, the comet only makes a brief appearance at the end of evening astronomical twilight so I haven't needed to stay out in the early winter cold and risk a relapse. It's not too cold at the end of twilight. Some of these photos have already been posted.
This was taken on April 27 and was posted as is in another thread. I used a Rokinon 135mm f2 lens and Pentax K1 using Pentax Astrotracer to track. Pentax Astrotracer uses the image stabilizer shifts the sensor to track the stars.
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An earlier version of this image was posted in my observing report on May 03 viewtopic.php?t=34430#p271850
I have since reprocessed it, stretched the image harder to bring out the detail in the tail disconnections. These were caused by two large solar flares in April and had moved down the tail by the time I took this on May 1 using a Losmandy Starlapse tracker. Pentax K1 and Pentax 300mm EDIF f4.
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Finally last night was a bit of a fluke. Heavy cloud low level cover was predicted and so it was at comet hour. However, there was blue sky on the horizon. I realised that being low cloud, it didn't extend very far west. I threw my camera in and jumped in my car, drove about 5km west. Apart from these more distant cloud bands seen in the photo, the sky was clear. Pentax K1 and Pentax 300mm EDIF f4. No time to set up and align the tracker. I put the camera on the tripod and activated the Pentax ASTROTRACER function in my DSLR. The tail visible in this photo before it disappears into cloud is about 1o long.
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Clouds are interfering with further attempts over coming days then the Moon will begin to interfere.
Joe Cali
Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site :http://joe-cali.com/ Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80. Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's. Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12 Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec. Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members), The Sky Searchers (moderator)
