The morning zodiacal light in December 2013 from the Painted Pony Resort, New Mexico, looking east at 5:00 am December 6, 2013. Taken with the 14mm Rokinon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600 for a stack of 5 x 2m15s exposures, tracked on the iOptron SkyTracker. Mars is above centre and Saturn is just rising over the mountain ridge. Comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1 is at far left. The image includes the position (left of centre, above the mountains left of the Zodiacal Light) where Comet ISON (C/2012 S2) would have been had it survived passage around the Sun.
Comet Lovejoy, C/2013 R1, in the pre-dawn sky from the Painted Pony Resort in New Mexico, looking east on December 6, 2013 with the comet in Bootes and Corona Borealis area. We were here to shoot Comet ISON but settled for Comet Lovejoy this week. This is a stack of 5 x 75 second exposures with the 135mm lens at f/2.2 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600 on the iOptron SkyTracker. The ion tail measures about 6* long on this image.
Comet Lovejoy, C/2013 R1, in the pre-dawn sky from the Painted Pony Resort in New Mexico, looking east on December 6, 2013 with the comet in Bootes and Corona Borealis area. We were here to shoot Comet ISON but settled for Comet Lovejoy this week. This is a stack of 5 x 75 second exposures with the 50mm lens at f/2.5 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600 on the iOtptron SkyTracker. Some clouds and airglow mar the sky.