The 46P/Wirtanen is said to be the Christmas Comet – a low-light sky traveller, but said as can be seen without a telescope. And what can be seen without a telescope, that can be seen with my 300mm telephoto lens…
When i first heard about the comet, it was foo far from us, so must be wait for come closer. Until it, the winter arrived to Hungary, with overcast skies for weeks.
But on 12th of dec., when i headed home from work, i seen some stars up. There were some holes in the cloud cover – so i grabbed the camera, and drive to a monument outside of the city, where there was less light pollution. And i had a luck, as the clouds opened that night to show the comet :) Was also really cold, as i wasn’t dressed for a night photoshot – who cared, maybe this was the only chance to catch the comet :)
It was hard to find it, because it’s only a little green spot between the stars (not so bright as i heard – not bright at al), almost undiscoverable with simply looking through the lens, or naked eyes. But it was right there where In-the-sky.org planetary said (back side of the Taurus); so i shot 10 frames with 10 black (some series), headed home, and developed the final picture with Sequator.
Yes, there are grandiose images hot with a telescope – but this is a low-cost comet image for a low-cost photographer :D And it means that even you can see the comet if you have any optical equipment with longer focal length.
Where to find it (with Search function, you can track the actual position ):
https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php
…and i added a post link to Sky-and-Telescope article.
More info: skyandtelescope.com
The little green spot is the comet (300mm, f5,6 , ISO6400, 2,5s – 10x)
The previous image framed (70mm, f4, 2,5s , ISO6400, one frame)
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