Lighthawk
Weekend warrior
Reading the internets this morning I realized we had a comet in the neighborhood. Better than an asteroid crashing into Earth, I suppose. 
After seeing the photos of the Moon and the Pan-STARRS comet from March 12th, I was inspired to get out there and do a photoshoot. After work I quickly downloaded a copy of Google Sky onto our Nexus 7 tablet, to help me see where the Moon and Pan-STARRS were located in the western sky. It was quite an alignment, with six bodies in a row: Moon, pan-STARRS, Uranus, Mars, Sun, Venus! Google Sky does not show the comet itself, but you can see how it relates and work it out from there. A good pair of binocs could be useful.
I found a viewpoint in the Sierra foothills around 2,000' elev. with an open western horizon. Bands of clouds were collecting on the Western horizon, which concerned me.
I unpacked the tripod and mounted the camera with my longest lens, a 400mm. It's the lens I use for much of my birding, where you can never have enough reach. I checked my phone for the location of the moon, said to be 9 degrees higher than the comet tonight. FACTOID: 10 degrees is the width of your fist at arms length. That made sense to me. The night before, the comet and the moon were neck and neck. Tonight the moon would be ahead (East) ~10 degrees. This is my seat-of-the-pants sense of astronomy.
So I strained my eyes, watching the red sun set and the moon hovering about, well above the horizon. I practiced photographing the moon, while waiting for the comet to show itself.
I used my camera as a telescope to scan the sky below and left of the moon, and BINGO! I saw the comet. At last!
The cloud layers were like the wings of a theater, with the comet entering and exiting.
I tried to switch up to a 560mm by using my 1.4 multiplier and I lost her. Pan-STARRS was gone, exiting the stage.
You may be able to view the comet over the next few nights as she rises higher, but the moon will be brighter each night.
Look to the West!
Pan-STARRS
After seeing the photos of the Moon and the Pan-STARRS comet from March 12th, I was inspired to get out there and do a photoshoot. After work I quickly downloaded a copy of Google Sky onto our Nexus 7 tablet, to help me see where the Moon and Pan-STARRS were located in the western sky. It was quite an alignment, with six bodies in a row: Moon, pan-STARRS, Uranus, Mars, Sun, Venus! Google Sky does not show the comet itself, but you can see how it relates and work it out from there. A good pair of binocs could be useful.
I found a viewpoint in the Sierra foothills around 2,000' elev. with an open western horizon. Bands of clouds were collecting on the Western horizon, which concerned me.
I unpacked the tripod and mounted the camera with my longest lens, a 400mm. It's the lens I use for much of my birding, where you can never have enough reach. I checked my phone for the location of the moon, said to be 9 degrees higher than the comet tonight. FACTOID: 10 degrees is the width of your fist at arms length. That made sense to me. The night before, the comet and the moon were neck and neck. Tonight the moon would be ahead (East) ~10 degrees. This is my seat-of-the-pants sense of astronomy.
So I strained my eyes, watching the red sun set and the moon hovering about, well above the horizon. I practiced photographing the moon, while waiting for the comet to show itself.
I used my camera as a telescope to scan the sky below and left of the moon, and BINGO! I saw the comet. At last!
The cloud layers were like the wings of a theater, with the comet entering and exiting.
I tried to switch up to a 560mm by using my 1.4 multiplier and I lost her. Pan-STARRS was gone, exiting the stage.
You may be able to view the comet over the next few nights as she rises higher, but the moon will be brighter each night.
Look to the West!
Pan-STARRS
