Hartley A Speck

Actually, I meant "hardly a speck"-- The Comet 103P/Hartley 2 continues to elude the spectacular and remain barely visible to the observer using binoculars or a tripod-mounted camera. This 30-second exposure at f/3.5 with an ISO rating of 500 barely detects the comet's light (inside small circle at center) in the east sky just before 3:00 AM on Monday, November 1, 2010. Hartley 2 was positioned on this night just below and right of the constellation Gemini and left of Orion. The bright star below Hartley and near the bottom is Procyon in the constellation Canis Minor. The fuzzy blob just above the right corner of the yellow box at bottom left is M44--the Beehive Cluster. This photo was shot looking over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.