Through the Window

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE at nearest point to Earth. Taken with a tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR at  f=18mm and ISO3200 a stack of 6 x 10 second frames using the freeware Sequator. Credit: Joel Cairo and Pip Stakkert.

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE animated GIF from 20x10 sec frames. No shortage of clouds or wind here on the UK East Coast. Credit Pip Stakkert

" The above images were taken looking north from an upper floor window of the Jodrell Plank Observatory Visitor Centre. The comet was approximately 64 million miles away, moving quickly across the northern sky under the Great Bear constellation and the Plough asterism. The comet is now heading back out to the icy extremities of the Solar System.  Farewell until your return in AD9020.

Pip Stakkert used the freeware astro-stacking programme Sequator for the first time. This is a very useful program for stacking images where static foreground landscape elements are to be integrated with the more dynamic objects in the sky. Thanks go to the Sky at Night magazine for bringing this software to our attention" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.