COMET C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS

Location:  Front Porch, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 20, 2019 1800-2130hrs

Weather:  Cool, at time breezy, winds dying off after 2100hrs, -5C.  Partly cloudy until clouds covered sky at 1900hrs till about 2100hrs.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel T3 attached to 80mm ED/APO at prime focus.  Eyepieces:  12mm, 19mm and 32mm.  Images processed on Photoshop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To image and view comet C/2017 Panstarrs T2 in Perseus.

Report:

• Sky darkened by 1800hrs, aligned scope on 4 stars and Venus.
• Located the comet approximately halfway between Capella and Perseus's brightest star, Mirfak(Arabian for elbow).  Took ten images of about 80 seconds each, totaling approx. 14 minutes of exposure time to create a stacked image.  Also took one single shot, highly exposed to show more of the comet.  Comet was too faint to see through any of my eyepieces when I searched visually.
• The stacked image shows a 14 minute path of the comet nucleus in relation to the background stars.  This comet is a slow mover compared with other comets I've imagined.  Actually, it's the slowest.

Stacked image shows a movement of the comet nucleus over 14 minutes.  10x80second, ISO 800.  Not cropped.

Single shot, over-exposed to better show the nucleus, coma and tail.  ISO 1600, 1x80 second.  Not cropped.

• Seen several satellites, but no shooting stars.