Here is one of my shots of the Comet 12P Pons-Brooks, captured during my trip to South Texas.
I captured it from outside Uvalde, Texas on 04-07-2024 using my 8 inch F2.2 RASA Telescope, AM5 Mount, and ZWO 294 MC cooled Cmos Camera, Optolong L-Quad Filter,
For an 8 minute total integration time. (16 x 30 second sub exposures), stacked in DSS, processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Raw CC.
It was only 12 degrees off the horizon , very low in the southwest, some very thin cirrus clouds were floating through during Civil/Nautical twilight ,
Difficult to see this low from Ohio, I was happy to still be able to capture it before it set below the horizon that night in Texas.
Also I was bombarded with a lot of satellite traffic during this short imaging session, but was able to remove traces of most of them after stacking.
The comet was shining at Magnitude 4.4, and had recently brighten up from mag 5.4., a very active nucleus is creating some nice tail features.
I noticed that the Comet’s Coma is sporting a nice hood and each night the tail seems to changes shapes, and on this night I see a large disconnection event near the end of the tail, giving a forked or mermaid / fish shaped tail…my previous shot with the Seestar shows in just two days dramatically different tail morphology.
I wish I was still in South Texas, so I could continue to monitor it each night, but I am happy to have captured of it.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
