Comet 2019 U5 (PanSTARRS)

[Ross Wilkinson]

I think that last night was the first proper clear night since the end of February, but there was a very bright Moon causing "natural light pollution"!

Nonethelesss, I set up to get my first image of comet 2019 U5:

With the bright Moonlight I couldn't use exposures longer than 30-sec (this is a stack of 105). The comet is around 12th magnitude and recent pictures have shown a distinct tail, but I couldn't detect much of it last night.

[Ross Wilkinson]

I got it again last night, with a better view of the tail. I took the data before the Full Moon rose:

This is a stack of 52x 1-minute with my Mx716 camera on the C8 operating at f/3.5.

That gap in the star-trails was when our neighbours' floodlight came on for 3 minutes!