Tuesday, December 11, 2018

COMET WIRTANEN AND STAR CLUSTERS Taken by Petr Horálek on December 10, 2018 @ Ustupky, Czech Republic



As the comet Wirtanen gets closest to the Earth, it also gets to one of the most beautiful part of the sky – the constellation Taurus with star clusters Pleiades (upper left) and Hyades (lower left). Weather in the Czech Republic is, however, very bad, so I was truly lucky for about 17 minutes of clear skies. Not quite enough for some truly deep imaging, but still worthy for capturing all three object in one view. Comet Wirtanen is now about twice bigger in the sky than the full Moon and its angular diameter still grows. On 16th December, during its closest approach to Earth, the comet will project very close to the Pleiades… Used Canon 6D Baader IR midified, Sigma 50 mm, f3.2, ISO 6400, 33×30 s from Vixen Polarie mount (darkframes applied).

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