Comet PanSTARRS in Tasmania, March 4 2013
Comet PanSTARRS made a stunning sight very low in the south western twilight earlier this month. Luckilly for us in Tasmania we were blessed with some stunningly clear nights and on March 4th I took a trip up Mt Wellington to see what I could see. While the sky was still relatively bright I fired a few test shots off in the general vicinity of the comet and was surprised to have some success – pic below. At this point the comet was not visible at all to the naked eye.
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Comet PanSTARRS, Tasmania March 4 2013
After a little while the sky became much darker and the comet really revealed itself. Both images below were taken with the Pentax K5 and its Astro Tracing function which I have written about previously. The images immediately below was a 20 second exposure at 70mm; and the 2nd shot was 60 seconds at a focal length of 200mm, and the stars are pin sharp and the comet is stunning.
Comet PanSTARRS, Tasmania March 4 2013
Comet PanSTARRS, Tasmania March 4 2013
Bloopers: Just for curiosity’s sake, the image below is the 20 second exposure from above without the astro tracer on. Not quite the same…
Comet Panstarrs Tasmania March 2013 – 20 seconds without astro tracer function
…and below, why you need to be careful not to knock your tripod while taking long exposures 🙂
Comet Panstarrs Tasmania March 2013
