Image 114 of 250
Comet Rise over Pelloncillo Mountains, New Mexico
Comet Rising Over Pelloncillo Mtns (Oct 2, 2024).jpg
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is rising in the dawn twilight over the Pelloncillo Mountains in New Mexico, on October 2, 2024.
The location was the Quailway Cottage just west of Rodeo, New Mexico, just over the state line in Arizona. The time was 6:14 am MDT.
The tail was visible in binoculars earlier when just the tail had cleared the mountains and the sky was darker. At the time of the photo the bright comet head and short tail near the head were obvious in binoculars but the fainter extended tail was not. The comet head, shining at about magnitude 0 (a rough estimate comparing it to Regulus) remained obvious in binoculars for many more minutes as the sky brightened.
High winds the day before kicked up a lot of dust in the air. While this had largely settled by dawn here, some remaining dust has reduced contrast somewhat, softened the scene, and no doubt contributed to the layered banding in the atmosphere.
The field of view is 10º by 15º, so the tail extends about 8º here, and in the darker sky before the head rose it was certainly longer.
Technical:
This is a blend of a stack of 4 x 4-second tracked exposures for the sky, followed by a single untracked 15-second exposure for the ground, to bring out some of the colour in the mountains, all at f/2 and ISO 400 with the RF135mm lens on the Canon R5. The camera was on the MSM Nomad tracker. The tracker keeps the comet and stars sharp, and the blending in of the untracked image keeps the ground and horizon line sharp. A mild and masked application of Nik Color EFX Detail Extractor on the sky helped bring out the comet's tail.
The location was the Quailway Cottage just west of Rodeo, New Mexico, just over the state line in Arizona. The time was 6:14 am MDT.
The tail was visible in binoculars earlier when just the tail had cleared the mountains and the sky was darker. At the time of the photo the bright comet head and short tail near the head were obvious in binoculars but the fainter extended tail was not. The comet head, shining at about magnitude 0 (a rough estimate comparing it to Regulus) remained obvious in binoculars for many more minutes as the sky brightened.
High winds the day before kicked up a lot of dust in the air. While this had largely settled by dawn here, some remaining dust has reduced contrast somewhat, softened the scene, and no doubt contributed to the layered banding in the atmosphere.
The field of view is 10º by 15º, so the tail extends about 8º here, and in the darker sky before the head rose it was certainly longer.
Technical:
This is a blend of a stack of 4 x 4-second tracked exposures for the sky, followed by a single untracked 15-second exposure for the ground, to bring out some of the colour in the mountains, all at f/2 and ISO 400 with the RF135mm lens on the Canon R5. The camera was on the MSM Nomad tracker. The tracker keeps the comet and stars sharp, and the blending in of the untracked image keeps the ground and horizon line sharp. A mild and masked application of Nik Color EFX Detail Extractor on the sky helped bring out the comet's tail.
- Copyright
- © Alan Dyer/AmazingSky.com
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