The northern Milky Way of autumn, from Perseus (at left) to northern Cygnus (at right), with Cassiopeia and Cepheus at centre, captured in the red light of hydrogen-alpha revealing the rich array of nebulas along this portion of the Milky Way. The main nebulas are: At left the Heart and Soul Nebulas (IC 1805 and IC 1848); at centre the NGC 7822/Ced214 complex; at right the IC 1396 complex. This is a stack of 24 x 6-minute exposures with the Canon 28-70mm RF lens wide open at f/2 and Canon Ra camera at ISO 1600, with the 12nm Astronomik H-a clip-in filter. Taken on a very clear night with this area of sku high overhead, but with a bright 8-day gibbous Moon in the south lighting the sky. Taken from home on December 12, 2021.
Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) on the morning of December 10, 2021, with a 200mm telephoto lens for a field of view of 10° x 6.8°. The tail appears to be about 3.5° long here. Taken about 6:30 am MST with the comet as high as it would be, though the sky is already beginning to brighten with the blue of dawn twilight. The distinctive cyan tint of a comet's coma is prominent. The comet was in Serpens at the time, with the magnitude 2.6 star Alpha Sepentis (aka Unukalhai) at far right (I framed the image to include the star). The reddish double star 47 Serpentis is below the comet. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 (wide open) with the 200mm Canon EF lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800. The comet has trailed a bit over the 4 minutes of exposure time as it was just past its closest to Earth and moving quite quickly eastward toward the Sun at this time. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) on the morning of December 10, 2021, with a 135mm telephoto lens for a field of view of 10° x 15°. The tail appears to be about 4° long here. Taken about 5:45 am MST. The distinctive cyan tint of a comet's coma is prominent. The comet was in Serpens at the time. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 135mm Canon EF lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600. The ground and area of sky closest to the ground comes from a single exposure to minimize blurring and the trailing of stacked stars from atmospheric refraction. The rest of the sky stacked with a Median stack mode to help eliminate satellite trails. Taken from home in southern Alberta.
