The Little Green Comet

It may or may not have escaped your notice that there’s a comet in our neighbourhood at the moment. From Earth it’s a faint (like really faint) smudge that you might just be able to see with the naked eye. If you’re one of those lucky people that has the time and proper equipment to capture and photograph this giant snowball then it shows up as a somewhat greenish fuzzy thing that’s a bit bigger and you can see more of it’s fuzziness.

This comet is causing a stir as it’s orbit is very, very elongated. They’re not even sure if it’s going to come back and the last time this comet was here we were cavemen running around in dead animal skins. Even if any of us had seen this comet, we would have had no idea what it was.

They certainly wouldn’t have been able to look at it closely.

For some nights last week I made it my purpose to go outside and get rather cold with my telescope and see if I could spot this visitor. Unfortunately all I got was cold, even after some stepping back after realising I was looking in slightly the wrong place I had no joy. Part of the problem was the Moon, it wasn’t yet full but it was so bright. For anyone that’s tried to get good night viewing you have time this viewing so it coincides so that there’s nothing pointless required of you from anyone in the house you happen to reside in, the weather is good and finally the Moon is either at or near new Moon.

Then you’re good!

In this case the Moon’s haze and brightness was getting in the way. I decided I needed a Plan B. Plan B was to use my camera on a wide angle and to point in the general direction of the comet and see what I got. I got this:

See that bit of fuzziness in the middle towards the top? That’s it. I actually managed to capture it. This is the result to 10 pictures stacked to (arguably) give a better image by getting rid of the noise.

I’m quite pleased I managed to get this, I might see if I can do better as the comet starts to move away from us. Her’es to wishing for clear skies and no dishes to wash up. I can’t wait around another 50,000 years. The Moon will be out though!

© Simon Farnell 2013 – 2023

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