On Comet, On Cupid?

Monday, February 13, 2017


Nope. Just a whole lot of nothing in the northeast sky. Unless you're a fan of the constellation Bootes. With positional information I thought I had, I attempted to capture the comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova (45P) one day before Valentine's Day. That information positioned the comet just south of the constellation Bootes (image above), and gave its brightness at an easily discernible magnitude of 3. Other information, though, had it at magnitude 7, which is in telescope territory. With a three-quarter moon saturating the night sky (outside the image at right), I got nothing but some washed-out stars. Above, the constellation Bootes lays on its side, with its brightest star--the magnitude -0.07 Arcturus--seen at right center. This image was captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 12:08 am CST, Friday, February 13, 2017. It is a 5-second exposure at f/4.5, 2000 ISO and 23mm focal length. Air temperature was 27 degrees F.

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