S-O Double Cluster and Comet PanSTARRS C/2017 K2

A portrait of a dim comet, PanSTARRS C/2017 K2, passing above the Serpens-Ophiuchus (S-O) Double Cluster at bottom, consisting of IC 4756 at lower left and NGC 6633 at lower right. This was the night of May 25-26, 2022. The comet is at top as a fuzzy green star, very small with a stubby tail. It was about 8th magnitude. This is a stack of ten 5-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51 at f/4.9 and the Canon R5 at ISO 800.

Comet Leonard on December 10 with Telephoto Lens

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 on December 10 With Zodiacal Light

Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) on the morning of December 10, 2021, with a 28mm wide-angle lens for a field of view of 65° x 46°. The comet is at far left, in the east, to the left of the bluish band of Zodiacal Light in the southeast in the pre-dawn sky. The Light was fairly obvious to the eye but is partly lost here in the skyglow from the lights of the town of Bassano and with some bands of red airglow as well lighting the sky. Arcturus is at top; Spica is at far right. The Zodiacal Light follows the ecliptic, so with the comet north of the Zodiacal Light, it shows how its orbit was inclined steeply to the ecliptic. The comet was closest to Earth and crossing the ecliptic plane heading south 2 days after the date of this image. Taken about 6:00 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 28-70mm Canon RF lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800. The ground comes from a single exposure to minimize blurring. The rest of the sky stacked with a Median stack mode to help eliminate satellite trails. Taken from home in southern Alberta.

Comet Leonard on December 10 Above Horizon

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.

Comet Leonard on December 10 Wide View

Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) on the morning of December 10, 2021, with a 70mm telephoto lens for a field of view of 29° x 20°. The tail appears to be about 5° long here. Taken about 5:30 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 3 x 1-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 28-70mm Canon RF 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. The bright blue horizon LED glow is from the Crowfoot Plastics plant to the east of me, on Highway 56.

Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov 2-3, 2021

Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it appeared on the night of November 2-3, 2021 in a good return near Earth, after its previous return in 2014-2015 when it was visited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe and Philae lander. The comet was faint — about 10th magnitude at this time, but did show a small tail on the photo and a typical cyan glow to its coma. The comet was in Gemini at this time. This is a Jupiter-family comet with a period of 6.45 years. This is stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon Ra on the SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor at f/4.5 and through an Optolong L-Pro filter.

Comet ATLAS Approaching Lambda Orionis Nebula

An image with some unusual colour contrasts for a deep-sky image — with blue Bellatrix, a green comet, and the huge red Lambda Orionis nebula. This is Comet ATLAS (C/2020 M3) seen here as the green glow above the bright blue star Bellatrix in the shoulder of Orion, and approaching the large diffuse red nebula surrounding the “head” star of Orion, Lambda Orionis. aka Meissa. The large nebula complex is catalogued as Sharpless 2-264. At right, above the comet, is the smaller emission and reflection nebula catalogued as vdB (vandenBurgh) 38. The sparse star cluster surrounding Lambda Orionis is Collinder 69. This was the night of November 15/16, 2020, with the comet moving rapidly northward a day after its closest approach to Earth and three weeks after its perihelion, or closest approch to the Sun. On the next nights the comet would have been within the nebula. This is a stack of 8 x 8 minute exposures without a filter, blended with 6 x 15-minute exposures through an Optolong L-Enhance narrowband nebula filter, to bring out the faint nebulosity. The comet image itself is from just one of the filtered frames layered and masked to reveal just the comet. But even in the single 15-minute exposure its image trailed slightly as its motion was quite rapid. I used a filtered shot for the comet as its green/cyan glow did pop out more than in the unfiltered shots, though the more usual cyan colour of a comet has been altered a little by the narrowband filter and its bandpass of the green OIII lines. All were with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/4.9 and with the Canon EOS Ra, with the filtered shots at ISO 3200 and unfiltered shots at ISO 800. Images were autoguided, with dithering, using the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider. I also used its polar alignment routing this night to refine the mount’s polar alignment and it seemed to work! All images stacked, aligned and blended with Photoshop.

Comet NEOWISE at Columbia Icefields (July 27, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 27, 2020 from the Columbia Icefields (Jasper National Park, Alberta) from the Toe of the Glacier parking lot, looking north over Sunwapta Lake, formed by the summer meltwater of Athabasca Glacier. So this is a portrait of ice in the sky and icy water on Earth. This was my parting shot of the comet, as it was fading rapidly at this time receding from Earth, though it was still naked eye. Plus the waxing Moon was going to be lighting the sky much more in the following week. So this was the night! While it was pale to the eye, the long expposure of the camera did pick up the blue ion and white dust tails very well. The ion tail extends about 15° and the dust tail at least 10°. The tails are certainly more prominent than in 99% of any comets we see any given year! So this was still a nice comet! Red and green bands of airglow, some faint magenta aurora on the horizon, and some lingering blue perpetual twilight at his northern latitude all tint the sky. The Big Dipper stars are at top. Arcturus is at far left. The orange star at bottom is Tania Australis, here made a little larger by it shining through some thin haze. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 4-minute untracked exposures for the ground, with 4 x 2-minute tracked and stacked exposures for the sky. Stacking the images smooths noise. Tracking the sky prevents star trailing in the long exposures required to reveal the faintest stars and the subtle comet tails. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 24mm Sigma Art lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600 for the ground and ISO 3200 for the sky. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground; Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night. The foreground is lit in part by lights from the Icefields Centre buildings off camera to the right.

Comet over the Columbia Icefields at Moonset

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 27, 2020, at right, over the Columbia Icefields with the Moon still lighting the peaks in a warm “bronze hour” light for a lunar alpenglow. The Moon is behind Snowdome Peak at centre and is also still lighting the sky a deep blue. The Milky Way is at left over Mount Andromeda. Arcturus is the bright star at top centre. This was more or less my parting shot of the comet, as it was fading rapidly at this time receding from Earth, though it was still naked eye. Plus the waxing Moon was going to be lighting the sky much more in the following week. So this was the night! Shooting a week earlier when the comet was brighter and larger would have been nice, but clouds would have got in the way. This was shot during a run of unusually clear nights at the Icefields, the first good clear nights according to the locals. I shot this during the brief “bronze hour” interval immediately after the Moon had disappeared behind Snowdome but was still lighting the peaks. So to be clear — the peaks are lit by the setting Moon, not by the Sun. This is not a composite of day and night shots; it is a well-timed and planned panorama shot as quickly as possible over a few minutes before the lighting changed. Lingering twilight lights the horizon down the Sunwapta Valley at right. The famous Athabasca Glacier is just left of centre; Snowdome Glacier is right of centre, with the glacial Sunwapta Lake in the foreground. Mount Athabasca is at far left with its glacier. This is a 17-segment (!) panorama with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.5 and Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600, for 20 seconds each, untracked. The overlap was more than is normally needed but the segments stitched perfectly with Adobe Camera Raw, which is not always the case with such scenes. LENR employed on all segments when shooting on this warm night. Dodging and burning applied to accentuate highlights and shadows. Topaz Sharpen AI applied. The original is over 27,000 pixels wide.

Comet NEOWISE and Ursa Major Over Mount Wilson (July 26, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 26, 2020 from Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park, Alberta. The comet is just about to set behind Mount Wilson, the iconic peak in the area. A meteor appears at top in the image framed to include the Big Dipper and the constellation of Ursa Major. While the comet was fading, its blue ion and white dust tails still show up well. It was from near here that scientist and explorer James Hector, member of the 1858-59 Palliser Expediton, observed Comet Donati on September 10, 1858 as they made their way up the valleys of the Bow, Mistaya, Howse and Saskatchewan Rivers, as part of a British scientific expedition to map the area and much of southern Alberta. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 800 (exposed long to bring out ground details), with 3 x 30-second tracked and stacked exposures at ISO 1600 for the sky. I shot short exposures for the sky to catch the comet before it set. The meteor was on one frame of the sky stack layered and blended in separately. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night. Shot from the parking lot of the Howse Pass Viewpoint area off the Icefields Parkway.

Comet NEOWISE at Saskatchewan River Crosssing (July 26, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 26, 2020 from the area of Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park, Alberta. It was from near here that scientist and explorer James Hector, member of the 1858-59 Palliser Expediton, observed Comet Donati on September 10, 1858 as they made their way up the valleys of the Bow, Mistaya, Howse and Saskatchewan Rivers, as part of a British scientific expedition to map the area and much of southern Alberta. Mount Wilson at right is lit in part by the setting Moon out of sight behind the foreground hill and by lingering summer twilight lighting the horizon over the Saskatchewan River valley at centre. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 200, with 3 x 1-minute tracked and stacked exposures at ISO 400 for the sky. Stacking the images smooths noise. Tracking the sky prevents star trailing in the long exposures needed to reveal lots of stars and the fading comet well. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 35mm Canon Art lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night.

Comet NEOWISE Close-Up (July 25, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 25-63, 2020 in a telephoto lens close-up with the dust tail shorter but still prominent but the blue ion tail now fading. However, the head is now very prominently cyan from the glow of diatomic carbon molecules. The comet was closest to Earth July 23 and was receding rapidly when this was taken. This is a stack of 6 x 1.5-minute tracked exposures with the 200mm L-series Canon lens plus 1.4x telextender for 280mm focal length at f/4 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. A short 30-second exposure layered and masked in for just the head to prevent it from being too bright and overexposed. Shot from home. Stacked and aligned on stars in Photoshop.

Comet NEOWISE in Ursa Major with Airglow (July 22, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 22-23, 2020 below the Big Dipper and in Ursa Major, and with prominent red and green bands of airglow which were more obvious tonight than on previous nights shooting the comet. Even with the bright sky the comet’s faint blue ion tail can be traced up past the Bowl of the Big Dipper. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute tracked exposures with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. Taken from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. An active thunderstorm was on the horizon below this scene, lighting the sky with flashes. Stacked and aligned in Photoshop. I’ve made only minimal effort here to eliminate the sky gradients and colours, but instead embraced them! The air was also dusty this night with reduced transparency.

Comet NEOWISE and Big Dipper Over Badlands (July 22, 2020)

Another incredible sky this night! This is Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on July 22-23, 2020, with the Big Dipper above. A very active thunderstorm system moving northeastward this night but well to the west of me lights the horizon. Parallel bands of red and green airglow tint the sky, as does the blue of lingering summer twilight. Even with the bright sky the comet’s blue ion tail can be traced up to and past the Bowl of the Big Dipper. This is an exposure blend, with the landscape from a stack of seven exposures from 2.5 to 3.5 minutes long at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, stacked to smooth noise, blended with a single untracked 30-second exposure for the sky at ISO 6400 at f/2, all with the Sigma 24mm lens and Canon EOS Ra camera. The ground is illuminated by starlight and sky light only; no light painting was used here. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky; Sharpen AI applied to the ground. Some light sculpting applied to the ground with a Dodge and Burn layer and a luminosity mask, to make the foreground less flat in lighting.

Comet NEOWISE Reflection (July 20, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) reflected in the still waters this night of Crawling Lake in southern Alberta. A dim aurora at right colours the sky magenta. Lingering twilight colours the sky blue. A meteor or more likely a flaring satellite appears at right and is also reflected in the water. Even in this short exposure, the two tails — dust and ion — are visible. This was July 20, 2020. The main image content is a single untracked exposure of 25 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 3200 with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The distant clouds, horizon, and water in the distance and in the immediate foreground without stars is from an average stack of 7 exposures, all at the above settings, to smooth noise. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night, though distant clouds are lit by yellow light pollution.

Comet NEOWISE and Big Dipper (July 20, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the still waters this night of Crawling Lake in southern Alberta. The Big Dipper is at top. Even in this short exposure, the two tails — dust and ion — are visible. This was July 20, 2020. The blue ion tail is extending up into the Bowl of the Big Dipper, for some 20° in length. Very impressive! The main image content is a single untracked exposure of 20 seconds at f/2.2 and ISO 3200 with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The distant clouds, horizon, and water in the distance and in the immedate foregound without stars is from an average stack of 6 exposures, all at the above settings, to smooth noise. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night, though distant clouds are lit by yellow light pollution.

Comet NEOWISE Below the Dipper Bowl (July 20, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) in a tracked close-up on July 20, 2020, showing the straight blue ion tail and the curving whitish-yellow dust tail. Even the ion tail was visible in binoculars and traceable out for 12° or so, or two 10x binocular fields. Here in the processed image it extends up into and beyond the Bowl of the Big Dipper, a distance of 20°. The curving dust tail extends about 15°. A bit of cyan colour is visible around the head of the comet. The bright galaxies M81 and M82, very tiny here, are at upper right. The two pairs of stars either side of the comet head are Tania (left) and Talitha (right), in pairs with the two stars each labeled Borealis and Australis. They form the feet of Ursa Major, but are also part of the asterism known as the Three Leaps of the Gazelle along with another pair to the west off frame at left. This is a median stack of six 1.5-minute successive exposures with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 and Sigma 50mm lens at f/2.8, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker but unguided. Stacked and aligned automatically in Photoshop with the Scripts>Statistics function. Applications of Curves brings out the fainter tails without blowing out the bright head. I applied extensive sets of gradient masks to help remove the sky gradients toward the bottom (horizon). However, inevtiably some sky gradient colours remain. An application of ON1 Dynamic Constrast and a high pass filter helped bring out the ion tail details and subtle banding structure in the dust tail. Other than that I did not apply any local adjustments to the ion tail to accentuate its brightness relative to the dust tail. But as always, the long exposure of a camera reveals more than the eye can see. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night, though some light cloud or possible airglow still discolours the sky.

Comet NEOWISE in Twilight over Lake (July 20, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the still waters this night of Crawling Lake in southern Alberta. This was early in the evening with the sky still brightly coloured with twilight. The comet was in the southern part of Ursa Major between the pairs of stars called Tania and Talitha. The clouds that were present nicely framed the scene and reflected in the water as well. The comet was too high to be visible as a reflection at this time. The main image content is a single untracked exposure of 20 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 640 with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The distant clouds, horizon, and water in the distance and in the immedate foregound without stars is from an average stack of 6 exposures, all at the above settings, to smooth noise. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night.

Comet NEOWISE in Close-Up (July 19, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) in a telephoto lens close-up on July 19, 2020, showing the straight blue ion tail and the curving whitish-yellow dust tail. Even the ion tail was visible in binoculars and traceable out for 12° or so, or two binocular fields. A bit of cyan colour is visible around the head of the comet. The ninth magnitude galaxy NGC 2841 is visible to the right of the comet. This is a median stack of four 1.5-minute successive exposures with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600 and Canon L-series 135mm lens at f/2.8, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker but unguided. Stacked and aligned automatically in Photoshop with the Scripts>Statistics function. I focused the lens with a Bahtinov mask which does help nail focus. I didn’t stack any more images to keep the relative motion of the comet against the stars to a minimum, to minimize blurring of the subtle structural detail in the ion tail. Residual twilight adds the sky colour. I applied gradient masks to help remove the sky gradients toward the bottom (horizon). Median stacking mode used to eliminate some satellite trails. A high pass filter helped bring out the ion tail details. Other than that I did not apply any local adjustments to the ion tail to accentuate its brightness relative to the dust tail. But as always, the long exposure of a camera reveals more than the eye can see. That’s the point of astrophotography. This was on a night when the sky cleared after a day of storms and rain, so the air was very damp but quite transparent. The comet was low in the northwest with some light cloud still wafting through adding some subtle red patches. I shot this from home in Alberta.

Comet over Canola Field Close-Up (July 15, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over a ripening canola field near home in southern Alberta, on the night of July 15-16, 2020. Light pollution from a nearby gas plant reflecting off low clouds and a rain shower adds the yellow at right. This is a blend of a stack of three 2-minute exposures at ISO 1600 and f/5 to smooth noise, provide depth of field, and bring out the colours of the canola, blended with a single short 15-second exposure of the sky at f/2.8 and ISO 3200, all with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 6D MkII camera.

Comet over Canola Field Wide-Angle (July 15, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over a ripening canola field near home in southern Alberta, on the night of July 15-16, 2020. Light pollution from a nearby gas plant reflecting off low clouds and a rain shower adds the yellow at right. This is a blend of a stack of seven exposures to smooth noise, blended with a single exposure of the sky, all at 30 seconds at f/2 and ISO 1600, all with the 20mm Sigma lens adapted to the Canon EOS Ra camera.

Comet over Canola Field (July 15, 2020)

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over a ripening canola field near home in southern Alberta, on the night of July 15-16, 2020. Light pollution from a nearby gas plant reflecting off low clouds adds the yellow at right. This is a blend of a stack of six 2-minute exposures at ISO 3200 and f/5.6 to smooth noise, provide depth of field, and bring out the colours of the canola, blended with a single short 15-second exposure of the sky at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, all with the 35mm lens and Canon 6D MkII camera.

Selfie Observing Comet NEOWISE (July 15, 2020)

A selfie observing Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) with binoculars on the dark moonless night of July 14/15, 2020 from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. A faint aurora colours the sky green and magenta. The faint blue ion tail of the comet is visible in addition to its brighter dust tail. The ground is illuminated by starlight and aurora light only. This is a blend of 6 exposures stacked for the ground (except me) to smooth noise, and one exposure for the sky and me, all 13 seconds at f/2.5 with the 35mm lens and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 6400. Topazs DeNoise AI applied.

Comet NEOWISE Close-Up (July 15, 2020)

A close-up of Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on the night of July 14/15, 2020 with a 135mm telephoto lens, and cropped in somewhat. But the field is about 10° high and the white dust and blue ion tails extend across the frame and beyond it. Some of the banding structure in the dust tail is visible. VIsually in binoculars the ion tail was barely visible with a little averted imagination but the dust tail easily extended about two binocular fields, so about 12 °. This is a stack of nine 1-minute exposures with the 135mm Canon lens wide-open at f/2 and Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker tracking the stars not the comet. Yes, the comet will have moved slightly against the background stars over the few minutes of the capture, but not enough to significantly blur detail at this image scale. I shot this about 12:45 am on July 15, 2020 from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, latitude 51° N. The comet head was about 9° above the northern horizon. The Sun was 15° below the horizon, so still not astronomically dark. The comet was also low in the north and so I have added brightness and color adjustments with gradient masks to even out the background, as the sky was brighter toward the horizon at the bottom, plus the sky also had some faint aurora adding magenta casts toward the bottom. Automatic gradient removal didn’t do a good job in this case. Plus despite being the middle of the night the sky was still deep blue this low to the north due to perpetual summer twilight. But I’ve retained that sky tint. Stacked and aligned in Photoshop.