Comets, Sunspots, and Zodiacal Light

April 1, 2024

There have been few opportunities for capturing night sky objects owing to clouds and the presence of the Moon. That doesn’t stop me from trying.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and Triangulum Galaxy (M33).

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and M33 (Triangulam Galaxy).

Clouds, a bright waxing Moon, and some distant light pollution made it difficult to capture this comet. This was taken at the base of Arizona Snowbowl ski area at 2830 m; the elevation helps to get above some of the atmospheric haze.

Sunspots AR3615 and AR3614

Several large sunspots are visible on the face of the Sun (27 March 2024).

Zodiacal Light

While setting up to photograph a launch at Vandenberg SFB (which was scrubbed), I fired off a few test shots of the zodiacal light. In review, I noticed that I also captured Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. Small–very small–when shot with a 24mm wide-angle lens.

Now, the Moon is out of the way and the forecast indicates a few clear nights so maybe I’ll get another change to shoot some images of the comet.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

March 13, 2024

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks remains in the western sky–visible as twilight fades. But don’t wait too long in the evening or it gets too low in the western sky and becomes difficult to see. Also, it requires long exposure photographs or binoculars/telescope to see. There are projections that it may brighten to become just barely visible to the unaided eye in a few weeks.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks on 09 March 2024. This is a single image taken with a 500mm telephoto lens.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on 04 March 2024. Stack of 13 x 120 second images.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks on 09 March 2024. A stack of images with Max value so that satellite tracks are not removed.

I’ve had several opportunities recently to photography the comet including its positioning in the sky near the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). A normal to short telephoto lens (i.e, ~50 to 85mm) was a good choice for capturing both objects while a longer telephoto (i.e., 180mm or even 500mm) worked best for isolating the comet.

Bonus photo: Andromeda Galaxy (M31) taken 13 January 2020.

Of course, the comet is not the only object in the sky. Satellites are constantly moving across the sky. Fortunately, software can remove the tracks by stacking multiple photographs and taking the Median or the Mean value at each pixel. On the other hand, it can be useful to take the Max value at each pixel to illustrate the number of satellites crossing even a small portion of the sky in a short period of time.

Run, Bike, Ski

March 2, 2024

It’s great that one can do all three of these in the winter. Ski in Flagstaff; run and mountain bike in the deserts. We have done all three this winter with the emphasis on running. Here are a collection of photos from this winter.

Group of runners stand around pools of water (01/20/2024).

X-C skiing at Fort Tuthill (02/09/2024).

Trail run on Sketch Trail, Sedona (02/13/2024).

Snowy run on Schultz Pass Road (02/15/2024).

Trail run on Margs Draw, Sedona (02/17/2024).

Mountain biking on Little Rock Trail, Sedona (02/20/2024).

Trail run on Lower Chimney Trail, Flagstaff (02/22/2024).

Trail run on Woods Canyon Trail, Sedona (03/02/2024).

Bonus photo from last year’s epic winter. Yeah, untracked powder!

Preparing to descend Flying Dutchman chute, Mt. Humphreys (01/18/2023).

Comet 144P/Kishuda

February 21, 2024

Last week I was able to get some good images of Comet 144P/Kushida which was located in the constellation Taurus and near the star Aldebaran. Being this close to a bright star makes it fairly easy to find.

Comet 144P/Kushida on 13 February 2024 while it moved through the constellation Taurus.

Screen shot from Stellarium showing the field of view at 500mm.

I first shot using an 80-200mm zoom lens. The short end (80mm) gave me a wide field of view to find the comet and then I zoomed to the long end (200mm). After about a half-hour of shooting I decided to switch to the 200-500mm zoom lens. Starting at 200mm to center the comet, I then zoomed to 500mm. The image above is the result of stacking 22 images (11 minutes exposure time) then post processing with rnc-color-stretch and finally, Lightroom and Photoshop. Above is a screen shot from the sky application Stellarium showing the field of view at 500mm.

The waxing gibbous Moon on 18 February 2024.

Bonus: image of the waxing gibbous Moon a week later. The image was converted from RGB to L*a*b color space and then the two color channels were adjusted to bring out the subtle colors of the Moon.

Winter Sunrise

February 6, 2024 / 2 Comments

The sunrise after a winter storm often results in beautiful scenery and colors. Low-lying areas may have shallow fog. Mountains may have multiple layers of clouds. All of this is enhanced by the low sun angle as it first rises above the horizon.

Low clouds and fog partially obscure the San Francisco Peaks as the sun rises (24 Jan 2024).

On the other hand, getting up before sunrise, driving on snow-packed roads, and standing around shooting photos with cold temperatures is a challenge. But the results are often worth the effort. Here are a few sunrise photographs.

Wispy clouds cap the San Francisco Peaks (08 Jan 2024).

First light on some old ranching structures near Mormon Lake (08 Jan 2024).

Earth's shadow can be seen behind the San Francisco Peaks in this pre-sunrise image (26 Jan 2024). — Earth’s shadow can be seen behind the San Francisco Peaks in this pre-sunrise image (26 Jan 2024).

Telephoto image of snow and clouds on the San Francisco Peaks (26 Jan 2024).

Layers of clouds are draped across Mingus Mountain (03 Feb 2024).

This week should bring lots of snow to northern Arizona. I hope to get some interesting photographs.