TWO COMETS & A CONJUNCTION

Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time:  March 7, 2021 1800-2130hrs

Weather:  Clear, no wind, -5.7 C and 57% humidity..

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm lens and using small telescope at prime focus.  Images processed with Photoshop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To image two faint comets in the western sky, just after dark and to view and image a close pairing of Mars and Pleiades.

Report:  

• Arrived at dark sky site at approx 6pm.  The sun was supposed to set at 618pm, which it did, but it didn't get dark enough to start imaging for a faint comet till 710pm!
• Comet C/2021 D1 Swan was reported to be low in the west at first dark, in the great square of Pegasus, about 5 degrees from Algenib, inside the square asterism.  Its last reported magnitude was 11.5, its distance from the Earth and Sun respectively are 1.677AU and 0.907AU, at observing time.
  

Single shot, 90 second, ISO 1600.  Not cropped.

•  Comet C/2021 A4 Neowise was reported to be in Taurus, below the bull-face asterism.  Its last reported magnitude was 12.4.  It was 0.846AU from Earth and 1.161AU from the Sun at observing time.  This comet was very faint, much fainter than Swan.  I could not see it in the viewfinder, but it did show up in 120 second exposure images, that were ruined by a tracking malfunction.  The comet didn't appear to have a brighter central region.  It appeared more as a whisp of cloud.

Single shot, uncropped, 30s, ISO 6400.

•  Mars and Pleiades were very close together.  Not close enough to get in the same field of view with the camera using the telescopes as a lens, though.

 

Single shot, uncropped, 15s, ISO 3200, f/3.5 and focal length 18mm.

Single shot, uncropped, camera using telescope as lens, 30s, ISO 1600.

• One bolide seen out of the corner of my eye, to the north while imaging at around 9pm.  This was the most satellites I've ever observed during an observing session.  Picked up many in images, as well.  This is the first time I have had an issue with satellites passing through images.
• Starlink launched more satellites today.  The train will be visible beginning at 428am tomorrow morning, according to heavens-above.com.  Another source for SpaceX Launches is at this link https://heavens-above.com/StarlinkLaunchPasses.aspx