A rainy day project to combine all the data taken with the Seestar S50 that was not parts of any mosaic mode sessions. It seems you can only restack non-mosaic mode sub-images, so I did that and came up with this image below.
Well, here it is, the interstellar comet everyone was so worked up about. I didn’t see it as anything too special. It was small, dim and what I term, “a runt comet.” lol
Anyway, it was conveniently placed in the sky, so I took a look the day after it’s, “closest approach to Earth,” (nearly 180 million miles away.) Yes, it’s not too impressive at this scale. The guys with 10 inch or larger scopes had better luck with this little runt of a comet.
Here’s a collection of images taken of Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) in October 2025 through November 2025 . Most were taken with a new ZWO ASI2600MC Air Smart Camera, which I purchased right before Comet Lemmon was at its best. I hooked it to my Astro-Tech AT60EDP at F/5 . Two were taken with my Seestar S50 (third from the bottom and the bottom image.) One was with a Canon T3 and a 180mm F/4.5 Askar Astrograph lens (second from the bottom.)
This was perhaps the best comet since the 2024 apparition of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in October of 2024.
Some of the best images I took of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) during its apparition in Sep 2024 through Nov 2024. Cameras used included my Canon T3, a QHY294C and a Seestar S50 and various lenses and my Astro-Tech AT60EDP F/5 telescope.
The Seestar S50 comes with a solar filter and works pretty well imaging the Sun. This was my first try at it.
After waiting a while for the tech to mature, I decided that a Smart Telescope would be fun to play with. So, I got the cheapest one on the market.
ZWO built it originally and they spun off a new company called Seestar to market it. In this case, the unit is the Seestar S50, a 50mm triplet in an all-in-one design including mount, camera, computer and storage.
Here’s the first light images from it:
Great transparency for this session, but very, very poor seeing. The guiding failed because it was so bad. Star were literally jumping from place to place in the guide camera view. So, I went unguided and had to dump more subs than I could afford. The comet was now setting over a more intense light dome than before at this location, too, which didn’t help. And then there’s all the darn satellites! Thanks a lot, Elon!
Since this was just about the end of the northern hemisphere’s time to catch the comet without twilight interference, I put together a montage of the best 12P images I managed to take while it was visible:
Too bad the weather didn’t cooperate in early March for me when the comet was higher in the sky. But, I’m glad it finally did clear up enough for me to get these before it was too late.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks on March 29, 2024, 01:32 UT (8:32 PM local time.) 4 x 2 minutes, QHY294C, AT60EDP at F/5. SharpCap 4.1 for acquisition and Live-stacking. Exported as displayed and color corrected in PSCS3.
FINALLY! I managed to get out of town on the first clear night in quite some time and bag Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. It was only a few minutes worth before the comet sunk too low in the west soon after twilight ended. But, it was enough.