Computer Looking Up

There is a saying that you need to know when to retire. This can apply to comet viewing as well. I decided after tonight’s session that it was time to call my time with Comet A3 as complete.

On my fourth consecutive night of photographing Comet A3, this one had by far the worst visibility. A thin layer of clouds was persistent across my West sky. And A3 is gradually dimming each night, presenting a challenge. I also used my iPhone instead of DSLR camera.

Each night photographing Comet A3 has presented its own challenges. On this evening, the problem was focus. On the prior two evenings I was able to easily leverage the Moon to get decent focus. However, on this night the Moon was still well-hidden in my East sky.

What saved the night were all the airplanes going in, out, and around O’Hare International Airport. The planes are not exactly infinity focus, but they are sufficiently distant to get the needed focus into the right ballpark. This article’s accompanying picture was taken after focusing the lens on a plane.

I almost did not get this session off. I originally had decided, after the prior night’s experiences photographing Comet A3, that for the remainder of its days I would use my best lens, the Sigma wide view. However, when I set up the lens minutes before going outside, I discovered I could not use the fine focuser. Worse, the camera would not snap images with it! Read on to learn what happened…

I photographed my first comet in over four years. This article explains how I found Comet A3 and the photography techniques used.