Starlog October17th, 2024, 7:40 p.m. local time
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! Not knowing the problem and time of the essence, I quickly switched to the stock Canon 300mm lens, which is what I used for this article’s picture.
After the session was over and I had a chance to inspect the Sigma lens, I embarrassingly discovered the problem. Can you guess what the issue was? If you do any sort of non-smartphone photography, you may have an idea. I will stop here to give you a moment to ponder!
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Thankfully, the lens itself was fine; I somehow flipped it to autofocus! For astrophotography, I always keep the lenses on manual. So the camera was set to Manual, but the lens was set to Auto, hence it did not work. I must have bumped the switch on the table inside.
Getting back to the comet (yeah, the comet!), my skies were very clear again so the actual session was easy. As expected, Comet A3 was slightly higher in my West sky. If you inspect the image above, you will see the star triangle pattern I wrote about yesterday, with Comet A3 now closer to the triangle, featuring my newest favorite star, Unukalhai.
The elevated position in the sky provided me more freedom to frame the shot with trees. With hopeful clear skies and a working Sigma lens, I should get a nicer photo tomorrow.
Equipment Used:
- Canon EOS Rebel SL3
- 300mm lens, 75mm focal length
- f/4
- 0.6 sec exposure
- ISO 3200
- Touchups in PaintShop Pro and AfterShot Pro
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