Late to the party

When I booked our cruise to the Maritimes, I didn't realize that it coincided with the comet of the century C2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. We left home just about the time it swung around the sun and put on its best evening shows. Tonight I set up the Seestar in hopes of getting it as it fades into the void for at least 80,000 years, and this is what I got. It took quite a while to locate it in binoculars, but I finally did. I tried unsuccessfully to get it with the DSLR. At 100mm it was very small in the frame, and I didn't think I could find it or focus on it at 400mm. I have received my ASIair telescope computer, but I think it is going to take a while to get my real telescope up and running. There is no learning curve with the Seestar, so that's what I used.

Even a single 10-second image from the Seestar will show the comet, but stacking is necessary to show the tail and to reduce noise. This image is 11 minutes. I shot multiple stacks, including one of more than 20 minutes. Seestar stacks on the stars, not the comet, so the stars are points and the comet head has a trail. It's hard to see since the head is a bit blown out, but there is a little bit of trailing in the first image. The second image is the long exposure, processed to show the trail formed by the head.