On February 9, 2023, after many weeks of completely overcast skies, I finally had the chance to photograph Comet C/2022 C3 (ZTF).
Near Bucharest, in Otopeni, at -10°C. Bortle 6–7 skies.
This was the first time I photographed a comet and attempted a more complex processing workflow on it (comet alignment, star alignment, layering, etc.).
Unfortunately, the comet’s ion tail, although slightly visible in the final master frame, no longer appears in the final image. The only way to eliminate certain “strange” artifacts that appeared during the image blending process (something similar to noise/banding) was to darken the background excessively, which significantly diminished the ion tail that was already difficult to see.
Equipment: EQ6-R mount (first test...), Sigma 150-600 @300mm, f/6.3, ASIAIR+.
One of the two batteries stopped working during the imaging session after about 3 hours (because of the cold), which reduced the total integration time.
Processing: PixInsight.
Imaging Comet C/2022 C3 (ZTF)
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