In the second week of 2024, the weather gave me a break on a Tuesday evening.  It was going to be one really clear and totally transparent night and I could not let it pass without imaging something.

I was setup and was taking flats by dusk.   But, the object I really wanted to get data on was not going to be in position until about 2:00 AM the following morning.  So, I needed to kill time and this area of the sky in the image above (Auriga) was in prime position.  I managed to get 3.75 hours before the mount reached the meridian and it was time to flip it.

At this point, I had another 2 hours of waiting, so instead of flipping the mount, I went with imaging the Virgo Cluster with this very wide field rig.   Not too bad for only two hours, but it needs about double what I had time for.

Finally, Leo and Comet 62/P, the object I was really after, was high enough to get data on, and I managed 45 sub-images of it.  I have two versions.  One is the cropped version above that I did first.

The full field version is below, which I restacked a couple of times to get a better background-stars-only image.  One stack was done with SharpCap, and then I re-calibrated the subs in FitsWorks and stacked them again in IRIS, which was not as noisy as the Sharpcap stack.  These two stacks were combined and then the comet-only images was composited in.

Not a very big comet, but it has a tail, at least.   I don’t think it will get much better than this, unfortunately.   It already passed perihelion in December and will make the closest approach to Earth before month’s end.  It was forecast to slowly dim over the next few weeks.

I stopped imaging the comet shortly before dawn.  I had to work that day, so I grabbed my scope and laptop and brought them in and tried to sleep for an hour or so.   I had napped during the night, but still lacked enough sleep to function.  It took a couple of days to recover enough to do the processing for these.  lol

Another comet image to add to my collection.  This is perhaps the last image from me of C/2022 E3 ZTF for perhaps the next 2 weeks.   Weather forecast is nothing but clouds next 10 days or more.    By that time, the moon will getting full and the comet is rapidly shrinking in size and fading in brightness.   It will still be around, just not as photogenic as it is now.

Also on this night, I tried out a new filter – the Antlia Triband RGB Ultra Filter.  Boy, that’s a weird one, let me tell you.  Blue as blue can get.  lol.   But, a stack from SharpCap color balances out in IRIS when setting the blackpoint, so I don’t know?  SharpCap refuses to color balance it and leaves it too blue, however.     lol    So, I just stack and then process first in IRIS for initial color.

This object(s) below was the second or third test subject.  Perfect, since this is in strong LP on the north to northwest side.  If it can block that, great!  And it seems to have blocked it:

Yes, it has funky colors, but they’re mostly there, instead of that dull pasty look from duo-band filters.  I don’t know?  I’ll have to do more testing.

Thor’s Helmet was the first object I used it on.  I shot it with a UV/IR then with the Antlia Triband with roughly the same framing.   This is just the subs-images using the Antlia.  It is about 33 minutes of combined exposure:

Finally, after experimenting with Thor’s Helmet, I went to one of the tougher targets – the Virgo Cluster.  Its always either not enough exposure or the wrong colors with duo-band and UHC filters for this cluster.  But, does this filter have the blue and enough other colors to give it what it needs?   Well, here it is:

With a very nice comet in the sky, I decided it was time to break down and get the camera I’ve wanted since the advent of the CMOS cooled-camera revolution.  It’s the QHY294C-Pro, an 11MP camera with low noise, 14bit output and a larger chip than the QHY183c.

I immediately noticed how much less noise it has than the old CMOS camera and how sensitive it is.   I should have got this one in the beginning.

A quick test was done on the Orion Nebula region for 30 minutes of exposure.   It came out better than some of my hours long attempts with the old camera or my DSLR.  Plus, the nearly full moon was out and produced a very harsh gradient and strong vignetting.   The flat I used was for a different orientation of the camera, so it did not fully remove the vignetting, but it got all the dust motes that were on my UV/IR filter and sensor cover.   (I should have blew off the dust on both before starting out, I guess.  lol)

I cropped the image above down a bit.   Here’s another version with different color balance and it is the full field, uncropped original:

BTW, no dark calibration in the above image.   It was a straight raw stack.   I covered the scope after the above test and shot darks in prep for what I was really after.

This was my main target, Comet C/2023 E3 ZTF.   It was highest in the sky at 8:30 PM local time and I started imaging it right before that.   I spent several hours on it, but this image is just the first 1.5 hours of that time.

BTW, my friends at Televue Optics, Inc., liked the above comet image enough to use it on their blog.  The post is about comet imagers using Televue equipment for their shots.  It is linked here: Televue Optics Blog – Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Imagers

Here’s another version with a less red background color from the moon’s interference:

A nearly full moon was out and in the same quadrant of the sky as the comet.  Moonlight this bright is tough to deal with and creates some very harsh gradients.   Luckily I took some flats the next morning and was able to use them to help minimize that issue.

Last but not least, were two galaxies I imaged to test the resolution and sensitivity of the new camera.  The image scale lacks for galaxies, but the color and low noise were outstanding.

Remember, all of these were taken on a bright moonlit night a day or so before full moon.   I would say the first light test was a major success!