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Comet Close-Up over Moonlit Red Rocks at Arches National Park
Comet Over Moonlit Red Rocks Close-Up (Oct 15, 2024).jpg
This is a telephoto close-up Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) over the red rocks of Arches National Park, Utah, on a superb moonlit night, October 15, 2024.
The comet was then at its finest in the evening sky, sporting a 15º- to 20º-long dust tail, obvious to the eye and camera despite the moonlight. The waxing gibbous Moon off frame at left provides the illumination. The fuzzy "star" to the right of the comet head is the globular star cluster Messier 5 in Serpens.
I have processed the image to emphasize the comet's tail. This image is similar to one taken just before, but at the wider focal length of 32mm that shows more of the tail length and more of the foreground.
Taken from the Courthouse Wash turnoff on the main Park road.
Technical:
This is a blend of stacked and tracked (for the sky) and stacked and untracked (for the ground) exposures: 3 x 8 seconds for the sky and 4 x 6 seconds for the ground, with the RF28-70mm lens at 70mm and at f/2.2 on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. Tracking the sky keeps the stars pinpoints, and stacking reduces noise and eliminates satellite trails. I lowered the camera framing slightly for the static ground shots.
The tracker was the MSM Nomad.
Enhancements provided by Nik Color EFX Detail Extractor and Luminar Neo Accent, Sky, and Structure AI.
The comet was then at its finest in the evening sky, sporting a 15º- to 20º-long dust tail, obvious to the eye and camera despite the moonlight. The waxing gibbous Moon off frame at left provides the illumination. The fuzzy "star" to the right of the comet head is the globular star cluster Messier 5 in Serpens.
I have processed the image to emphasize the comet's tail. This image is similar to one taken just before, but at the wider focal length of 32mm that shows more of the tail length and more of the foreground.
Taken from the Courthouse Wash turnoff on the main Park road.
Technical:
This is a blend of stacked and tracked (for the sky) and stacked and untracked (for the ground) exposures: 3 x 8 seconds for the sky and 4 x 6 seconds for the ground, with the RF28-70mm lens at 70mm and at f/2.2 on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. Tracking the sky keeps the stars pinpoints, and stacking reduces noise and eliminates satellite trails. I lowered the camera framing slightly for the static ground shots.
The tracker was the MSM Nomad.
Enhancements provided by Nik Color EFX Detail Extractor and Luminar Neo Accent, Sky, and Structure AI.
- Copyright
- © Alan Dyer/AmazingSky.com
- Image Size
- 8100x6050 / 22.3MB
- www.amazingsky.com