On February 11, 2023 Comet ZTF made a very close encounter with the red planet Mars. Luckily enough, it was a clear night here in Hobart so I popped out onto the deck with my 150-450mm and took a look.

Comet ZTF and Mars in the skies above Hobart, Feb 11 2023

Mars was easy to spot so I pointed the camera in that general direction and low and behold there was a bit of a smudgy haze in the general vicinity. I used the astrotracer function of the Pentax K1 to get a 60 second exposure without the star trails. The comet wasn’t as spectacular as Comet Leonard from just over a year ago but its proximity to Mars made for a very unique photo opportunity!

Comet ZTF and Mars. 60 second exposure utilising the Pentax astrotracer

60 second exposure without tracing.

For the record, here are two shots I took, one with the astrotracer on and one with it off to demonstrate the effectiveness of this feature. The astrotracer uses GPS and the cameras sensor stabilisation system to eliminate star trails on long exposures. Quite a handy little trick!