This is probably my last Comet Encke shot for this go-around.  It is so close to the horizon at the end of astronomical twilight that it is hard to get any good data.  Only if the horizon is exceptionally clear from this point forward will I attempt to shoot it again.

It still shows a nice tail, despite being in the muck at the horizon.   The negative insert shows the tail the best, but it is also somewhat visible even in the positive image.

I had guiding issues for this shot, so I was not expecting much of an image from the data.  But, it still came out OK despite that.

I did it.  I drove out of the city to a new spot I found on a Light Pollution Map.   It was only 30 to 40 minutes away and very dark by today’s standards.  It is a dead-end Parish road with no houses for a few miles, which means I didn’t have to trespass on someone’s property.  I just stopped at the end of the asphalt and setup shop.  🙂

I was able to shoot with ISO 3200 even with Comet Encke close to the horizon.   It was dark enough to notice a little zodiacal light there, too.   With these kinds of conditions, I was able to pick up Encke’s tail.

The data was shot in three sets.  Two sets of 15×30 sec @ ISO 400 and 7×30 sec @ ISO 3200 while it was still twilight and finally a set of 37×60 sec @ ISO 3200 started just before twilight officially began.  About 48 minutes total integration.

The main image has been cropped, but the enhanced negative insert is more of the full field.  You can see that the tail actually goes out of the field of view.  Amazing!

Two enhancements that show tail length.

Unfortunately, Comet Encke is all I got this evening.  While I was doing a better polar alignment and setting up to shoot the Horse Head, a huge fog bank rolled in quicker than I even noticed and it was thick.   Oh, well…   I took that as my cue and shot my calibration frames and left.

I also did a star freeze rendition and it came out ok.  It just doesn’t show the tail as well as any of the above images:

Not much to look at here.  Comet Encke was next to one of the brighter stars in Pisces and deep in the muck and haze of LP and poor transparency skies.   I was lucky to get even this much.

Here’s just the comet centered in a close crop that excludes the bright star:

Taken in bright moonlight and bad LP in the hours before dawn on Feb 10, 2017.   45P is so dim that it barely showed up in the sub-images.  I almost thought I was not in the right place.    Luckily, I kept the scope pointed at that spot and kept shooting images until daylight.

BTW, the image above appears in Wikipedia for the entry on comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková.

I had time for just a quick peek at Comet Johnson before moving on to my main target, Comet 45P.   It was not at an optimum spot and ISO 400 maxed out at 60 sec exposures with all the LP and moonlight.   So, it was not very deep and has noise and low color.  But, at least I can see that not much has changed since the last time I shot it.   This is supposed to be the next photogenic comet, coming this summer to a sky right above you.   🙂

Here’s Comet Encke on Jan 29, 2017.    I imaged it two years ago when it last came around.  On this night it was very low in a very bad LP zone  right above bright parking lot lights and street lights.   I’m surprised anything even registered.   As you can see, it was small and dim and almost, but not quite, swallowed up by the LP.  🙁

Another Comet Johnson image.   It seems to be a bit brighter than last time, but not much bigger.   Eventually, it should get more photogenic as it gets closer to Earth and the Sun..

I’ve finally bagged a new comet after almost 2 years since I shot my last one, which was Comet Lovejoy.   This one is small and dim at the moment, but it has a neat tail.

Comet Johnson is predicted to get better with the best views coming this summer.   So far, it looks like it will be an easy target for the next few months.  I’ll probably get more images of this one as it develops.