Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 10, 2023. The comet is the cyan-coloured glow above bright orange Mars. At right is the Pleiades star cluster, while the Hyades star cluster with reddish Aldebaran is below. Other NGC catalogue star clusters are in this framing: NGC 1647 below centre, NGC 1746 below right of the comet and Mars, and NGC 1817 at lower left. Mars appears to be at the tip of a dark lane of interstellar dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds. This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon R5 and with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 65mm. The lens was stopped down from f/2 so the iris blades added the diffraction spikes. Tracked but unguided on the AP Mach1 mount, and taken from home. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in.
The infamous "Green" Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passing by reddish Mars with both in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 11, 2023. The comet was 2° south of Mars this night. Mars was embedded in some of the dark obscuring dust clouds in Taurus, creating the dark patchy appearance to the background sky. The comet's coma glows cyan due to emission from diatomic carbon molecules, a common trait of comets. The dust tail and faint ion tail are just visible. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with filter-modified Canon R and with the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.5. On the AP Mach1 mount, and autoguided with the ASIAir Mini and 30mm ZWO guidecope. In the 8 minutes of exposure the comet didn't move enough to significantly blur its image at this scale (420mm focal length). Taken from home as part of testing the Mini. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in. The comet tails brought out with luminosity masked curves from Lumenzia and with a Lighten DSO action from AstronomyTools.
A 3-panel mosaic of the Southern Cross, Crux, shot April 5, 2016 from Tibuc Cottage, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia. Acrux, Alpha Cruxis, is the star at bottom and Becrux, Beta Cruxis, is the star at left, with the Jewel Box Cluster, NGC 4755, just to the left of Becrux. Gacrux is at top and Delta Cruxis is at right. The star cluster NGC 4349 is above Alpha Cruxis. The bright red nebula in the dark Coal Sack is Gum 46. The rich cluster to the right of Becrux is Harvard 7. The dark nebulosity at lower left is the Coal Sack. The small cluster embedded in the Coal Sack to the left of Acrux is NGC 4609, what I call the Coal Dust Cluster. Slight haze or high cloud added the natural star glows here. This is a moasic of 3 panels, each a stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures with the Borg 77mm f/4 astrograph and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Stacked and stitched in Photoshop.
