Comet and Mountain - a photo on Flickriver

Comet and Mountain

- www.kevin-palmer.com - I've been wanting to get an image like for a long time. But it's been several years since we've had a comet this bright. This comet named 46P/Wirtanen was discovered in 1948 and will make it's closest approach to Earth next week. I had my doubts that this picture would happen. The comet would only be positioned above this snowy mountain for 3 nights at most. Even rarer than a clear night in December, I needed a night with no wind. But at 2AM this morning, everything came together. The temperature hovered around 0°F; it was a frosty nostril kind of night. When I first arrived in the Bighorn Mountains the comet was just visible to the naked eye, but the best view was through binoculars. In my pictures, it's about 2-3X the angular size of the moon.

To create this image I first shot a 4 panel mosaic of the comet using a Nikon D750 and Nikon 180mm f2.8 lens on an iOptron Skytracker mount. Those shots were 2.5 minutes, f/5, ISO 1000. Then I turned off the tracking and shot a time-lapse of the comet setting to later use for reference so I could position and align the comet exactly as it appeared behind the mountain. After the comet set, I shot 2 15-minute images of the mountain. Then I combined all 6 images as accurately as I could.

Taken in: United States / Wyoming / Johnson (show map)

Taken on: December 7, 2018

Tags:

Bighorn Mountains

Bighorn National Forest

Wyoming

December

night

sky

stars

starry

clear

space

astronomy

astrophotography

comet

46P/Wirtanen

snow

snowy

cold

peak

nikon d750

nikon 180mm f2.8

ioptron skytracker

green

early

morning

long exposure

composite

mosaic

telephoto

Astrometrydotnet:id=nova3091758

Astrometrydotnet:status=solved « less

Sets appears in: • iOptron Skytracker

Groups appears in: • Nightscapes - Natural Landscapes at Night • Astronomy more » • Night Sky, The • Wyoming Photographers Shooting WYoming • astrometry • Comet Images • Wyoming "The Cowboy State" • **Snow, Snow, Snow!** • Rocky Mountains Landscape & Wildlife Photos • NIKKOR 180mm f/2.8 • Wide Field Astrophotography - Starry Skies • EarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science • Night Sky Observations • Astronomers Talk • Universe Today • Into the Night Photography • APOD Submissions • NIKON D750/D780 CLUB « less

Camera: Nikon D750, f/5.0, 909 sec, 180mm, ISO 1000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D750
Lens:	180.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	909
Focal Length:	180mm
ISO:	1000
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Tungsten (Incandescent)
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 7.0 (Windows)
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