Sky this Week

Comet C/2008C1 (Chen-Gao) was passing through a beautiful star field with several small clusters when these images were taken. It showed up quite well through the eyepiece of 14 inch dob. The comet was in Cassiopeae. Estimated brightness is around magnitude 13.

Image was taken at dark sky site we call Roland’s Astro Corral on a private ranch in the Pawnee Grasslands about 40 miles east of Fort Collins, CO with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera at 14/14 gain, integrate 128 (4 sec), acquired 40 frames for each image. Temperature was around 25°F, no wind, transparency was excellent, and turbulence was 6/10.