This is a photograph I took of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) above the Eastern Sierra mountain range in the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area, California.
I drove 14 hours round trip and hauled 60 lbs of gear into the desert to capture the comet from one of my favorite places on Earth: the Eastern Sierra mountains in California. This shot is a combination of 61 individual 5-second tracked exposures from last night (Oct 15th), totaling 5 minutes of total exposure on the comet, and then blended with the foreground from one of the tracked exposures, which is why it’s slightly blurry. The star cluster on the right is Messier 5, an unexpected surprise when I imaged this.
Seeing this comet with the naked eye in this place was special. This was my first real big astro adventure since my daughter was born five months ago, and it was well worth the wait.
Gear used:
- Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens
- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera
- ZWO AM5 Mount
- ZWO ASIAIR Plus
