Nebulas And a Comet

Cosmic Variety

After three clear nights in a row I wondered how much longer good conditions could last. Incredibly, one more excellent night followed on February 6th, making four(!) consecutive cloudless nights. Once again I quickly set up my Seestar 50 to take advantage of dark, moonless skies.

The first target on February 6th was planetary nebula M76 in Perseus. Thirty minutes of stacked exposures yielded the following image.

Also in Perseus is white reflection nebula IC 348. This nebula didn't show very dramatically in a 30-minute exposure.

On the previous night my Cone Nebula exposure time was cut short at 30 minutes. This time I stacked 90 minutes of 10-second exposures and got the following image.

The dark Cone Nebula, visible on the left, has a disappointing dull red nebulosity color. Maybe I should have employed the light pollution filter.

The period of absolutely clear evening weather finally ended on February 7th. Near dawn on February 8th, however, I looked from my bedroom window and noticed Scorpius rising in clear sky to the southeast. Comet PanSTARRS (C/2021 S3) was in the neighborhood of  Scorpius' brightest star, Antares, and was predicted to pass near some globular clusters. In the past I would never have had the energy to haul out my complicated astrophotography equipment at 4:30 am, but the Seestar was outside in one quick trip and ready to image in 10 minutes. The following 5-minute exposure shows the comet (top) in the same field of view as globular cluster NGC 6287 (bottom). There's a dark obscuring galactic dust cloud between the two.

  

The comet was disappointingly small. It's fuzzy tail and coma are just visible but not prominent. I thought a longer exposure would reveal more. Unfortunately, the comet moves appreciably relative to background stars, so a longer exposure smeared the comet out. Check out the elongated comet nucleus in the following 13-minute exposure.

As long as I was outside before dawn I looked for another target. Globular cluster M80 in Scorpius was a good possibility. As clouds began drifting in I took a 5-minute exposure of M80 shown next.

Unfortunately, my good luck streak ended as clouds and haze began filling the sky. Cloudy weather and moonlit sky will interfere with imaging for at least the next two weeks.