Probably most of you have heard about the comet that was discovered last year that was discovered to have made it's last orbit by us 50,000 years ago. I am guessing most of us won't be around for it's next pass.... 
It's called Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It's currently visible, and according to what I have read it will be visible until Feb 2nd, I will double check that.
So it's currently as of January 14th rising above the Horizon at about 12:30am and it continues to rise in the sky until it gets washed out by the sunrise. It will keep rising earlier and earlier, for example next Tuesday, the 17th it will be rising above the Horizon about 11pm. By January 23rd it will be rising above the horizon about 5pm.
To find it, look to the north, it is currently rising to the NE. But it will slowly keep shifting more and more North. By the 23rd it will be on the west side of North.
Also, it's currently as close to the sun as it will get, so it will be getting further away from the sun (where it's the brightest) to where by Feb 2nd, it's supposed to be as close to the earth as it will get (where it's the largest).
Notes on Capturing it.
Having an astro mount will be a huge help of course. But it can be captured closer to Sunset by the end of January, so the sky won't be as dark, so you can capture it more easily with just a tripod without having to raise the ISO super high. When Comet Neowise was up high in the sky and it was super dark, I had to use ISO 12,800 on my DSLR with a tripod to capture it. The reason for that is it moves in the sky, so just as in capturing any space object, you have to shoot fast enough, based on your focal length so that the objects don't move. Depending how long of a lens you go, that could be as short as 2 seconds. So that's why the ISO needs to be raised up so high. So the closer to sunset, with the sky brighter, the lower your ISO can be to achieve a good exposure while still maintaining a fast shutter speed so nothing blurs.
I hope that makes sense.
Now with an astro mount, that is not as big of an issue. With Neowise, I think I only used a stationary tripod. I think I also tried my SkyGuider Pro, but I don't recall much about it.
The comet does move at a different speed then the stars, so even with a tracking mount, I think exposures can't be too long. Having the mount somewhat track it will help, but I am not sure it would be perfect.
If anyone has experience with using an astro mount with tracking a comet, please share your experience. I plan on trying that this coming Tuesday, but I haven't done it yet.
For processing it, typically you are going to want to take multiple images, and then stack them in a program like DeepSkyStacker. Though if recall you can't stack too many since the stars and comet move at a different speed. If I recall right with Neowise, I manually aligned a dozen or so exposures in Photoshop, and then applied a median or mean blend to the stack.
So it appears that starting around the 23rd, will be the best time to try and incorporate the comet with a ground layer if you so chose. I know I will be trying that.
Anyone else having information, tips, suggestions or questions, please share.
Jim
It's called Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It's currently visible, and according to what I have read it will be visible until Feb 2nd, I will double check that.
So it's currently as of January 14th rising above the Horizon at about 12:30am and it continues to rise in the sky until it gets washed out by the sunrise. It will keep rising earlier and earlier, for example next Tuesday, the 17th it will be rising above the Horizon about 11pm. By January 23rd it will be rising above the horizon about 5pm.
To find it, look to the north, it is currently rising to the NE. But it will slowly keep shifting more and more North. By the 23rd it will be on the west side of North.
Also, it's currently as close to the sun as it will get, so it will be getting further away from the sun (where it's the brightest) to where by Feb 2nd, it's supposed to be as close to the earth as it will get (where it's the largest).
Notes on Capturing it.
Having an astro mount will be a huge help of course. But it can be captured closer to Sunset by the end of January, so the sky won't be as dark, so you can capture it more easily with just a tripod without having to raise the ISO super high. When Comet Neowise was up high in the sky and it was super dark, I had to use ISO 12,800 on my DSLR with a tripod to capture it. The reason for that is it moves in the sky, so just as in capturing any space object, you have to shoot fast enough, based on your focal length so that the objects don't move. Depending how long of a lens you go, that could be as short as 2 seconds. So that's why the ISO needs to be raised up so high. So the closer to sunset, with the sky brighter, the lower your ISO can be to achieve a good exposure while still maintaining a fast shutter speed so nothing blurs.
I hope that makes sense.
Now with an astro mount, that is not as big of an issue. With Neowise, I think I only used a stationary tripod. I think I also tried my SkyGuider Pro, but I don't recall much about it.
The comet does move at a different speed then the stars, so even with a tracking mount, I think exposures can't be too long. Having the mount somewhat track it will help, but I am not sure it would be perfect.
If anyone has experience with using an astro mount with tracking a comet, please share your experience. I plan on trying that this coming Tuesday, but I haven't done it yet.
For processing it, typically you are going to want to take multiple images, and then stack them in a program like DeepSkyStacker. Though if recall you can't stack too many since the stars and comet move at a different speed. If I recall right with Neowise, I manually aligned a dozen or so exposures in Photoshop, and then applied a median or mean blend to the stack.
So it appears that starting around the 23rd, will be the best time to try and incorporate the comet with a ground layer if you so chose. I know I will be trying that.
Anyone else having information, tips, suggestions or questions, please share.
Jim
