Photographing a Comet: C/2023 E3

 

In early 2023, comet C/2023 E3 became a celebrity in the sky.   It was a green jewel above us with a tail that changed throughout its journey around the sun.   The comet made it closest approach to the Sun on January 12, 2023 and then reached its closest point to Earth on February 1, 2023.   In early March, I tried to snap a photo of this comet before it left our view for generations to come.  

This first photo is only 4 minutes of exposure time.   Essentially it is just one shot of the comet so we can see the comet with the stars in background.  You can see how green this comet is!  

I wanted to try and get the tail of this comet with a bit more clarity, so the next picture is a stack of  50 two minute exposures.  Since the comet is moving so fast through space, when I stack these 50 photos into one final shot, the stars turn into lines.   In this photo you can see a second tail extending from the comet as well as a hint of the star trails during the 1 hour and 40 minutes of exposure to obtain the shot.

The equipment and software that I used to process this photo are below

Until the next comet graces our sky, this was a fun one to capture.