SOLAR SYSTEM
  Gavin James
  07808 480621
  gavin@gjmultimedia.co.uk
 
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Comet 46P/Wirtanen & The Pleiades - 2018-12-16

I have been following comet 46P's journey through perihelion and on to perigee with great interest. I knew that on the date of perigee, 16th December, the comet would be in close proximity to M45 - The Pleiades. This positioning would make for a beautful image. The only problem was the weather, the forecasts were not good. However, as the date approached, the forecasts were showing the possibility of a gap in the clouds sometime after midnight. I stayed up, hoping. Sure enough, soon after midnight, the clouds parted and I quickly set about putting up the Star Adventurer mount with my DSLR. I managed to grab an hour and a quarter of 60s exposures before the sky started to haze up and cloud over again. I was very happy though, I had caught the comet's close pass to this wonderful open cluster. The contrasting colours of the blue cluster and green flourescing comet really make this stand out. Sometimes the Sky Gods are on my side after all!

Telescope:
Camera:
Exposures:

 

Canon 70-200mm lens at 200mm, f2.8
Canon EOS 1Dx
75 x 60s at ISO 800

 

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