A Comet Within Reach

A photo composite of multiple exposures. From the photographer: “Can we touch a comet? Of course not, but we can do it symbolically. For example, the currently visible 12P/Pons-Brooks with its ~17km wide dirty-snowball-nucleus I managed to capture with precise planning on a hill of Oravská Lesná, Slovakia, with me seemingly trying to touch it in the hazy moonlit-sky, however that night on 14th March 2024, it was about 245 million kilometers away from me. The comet is now slowly getting the closest to Earth, which will happen on June 2nd, but still, it won’t be closer than 232 million kilometers from us. Still, it majestic ion tail in photographs makes it feel like the comet is within reach.”

Technical details:
Used Canon Ra, Tamron 70-200mm/200mm, f2.8, ISO 2500, 23x30s, tracked on Vixen Polarie U, Optolong Clear Sky filter (comet’s tail); Tamron 70-200mm/70mm, f2.8, ISO 2500, 61x30s, tracked on Vixen Polarie U (wide view with galaxies) plus Canon 6D (modified), Sigma 50mm, f2.8, ISO 5000, 10x10s, tripod (foreground “selfie”), all data then combined and stitched as panorama to the final image.