Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Auriga on the night of Feb 8, 2023. The comet is the small cyan-coloured glow above centre. It was technically in Auriga but heading south into Taurus and in front of the Taurus Dark Clouds here at centre. Mars is the bright orange object right of centre. At right are the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters, the latter with reddish Aldebaran. Other Messier-catalogue star clusters are in the frame: M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga and M35 in Gemini. The red emission nebulas in this part of the Milky Way also stand out, notably the California Nebula, NGC 1499, at top in Perseus, and the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405, in Auriga at centre. At bottom is the large faint nebula around Lambda Orionis, or Meissa, in Orion. Capella is at top; Castor and Pollux are at left. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the red-sensitive AstroGear modified Canon R and with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 28mm. This is one segment of a Milky Way panorama taken this night, from Dinosaur Provincial Park, using the Star Adventurer tracker.
Comey Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2, nearest the Pleiades star cluster, Messier 45, on the night of Sunday, January 18, 2015, with its blue ion tail almost passing over the cluster. This is a stack of 6 x 2 minute exposures at f/2.5 with the 135mm lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico, Some haze was passing thru this night but this is a stack of the cleanest frames.
