IMAGING AND OBSERVATION OF COMET 45P HONDA-MRKOS-PAJDUSAKOVA

I spotted comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova on the early morning of 28th September using my 10-inch Dobsonian Telescope. The comet was very bright showing bright inner coma. The comet was shining with magnitude 7 and its diameter was 7’. I used a 38mm 2-inch Orion Q70 eyepiece for this observation. The comet was within 4 degrees East of Regulus and was just 13 degrees above horizon at 5:25am.

Next morning I decided to capture this comet using Canon 55-250mm IS lens with my Canon EOS 550D camera. I used this setup on a light weight tripod which I had used for my Panasonic DMC FS15 camera.  However I got the comet’s fuzzy image after a couple of shots.

Exposure 5 seconds, ISO 6400, F/5.6, focal length 171mm

The comet is marked with an arrow.