Comet 46P/Wirtanen
in the evening sky
December 8, 2018

 
 This
            shot was taken as a first light new lens test of my Sigma macro.
            It is a superb lens for daytime close ups, and very fast at f/2.8.
            Here, I wanted to see how this non-zoom lens did on stars. I
            was not dissapointed! Tack sharp, with stars so tiny they were
            not fully resolved by the 11 mega pixel sensor. The comet was
            magnitude 4.2 when this shot was taken, and processing the dozens
            of 36 Mb files was a very laborous task at best, bringing my
            computer to its knees. By only opening five fieles at a time
            and taking two nights to process, this was the result.

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1400 x 1290
            


Lens:  Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro
Camera: Canon Xti
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200 
Exposure:  60m RGB
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  5/10, Transparency 3/10
Outside Temperature:  45F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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