Here is comet Hartley 2 as it was traveling through the constellation
Cassiopeia on the evening of October 3, 2010. It had brightened to
magnitude 5.52 as it passed about 2 degrees from NGC 457, The Owl
Cluster. This comet was discovered by Malcom Hartley in Australia on
March 15, 1986 and has an orbital period of about 6.5 years.
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 66 @ f/4.7
Accessories: William Optics 0.8x reducer/flattener vII; Dew control by Dew Buster
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G controlled by EQMOD
Guiding: TS-OAG9 Off-axis, using a Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Camera: QHY9-C one-shot color CCD @ -20.0C
Filters: Hutech IDAS-LPS-V2
Exposure: 45 x 2min. (1hr. 30min.)
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 4.00 Camera Control
Processing: ImagesPlus 3.80a – Calibrated, registered, median combined, DDP
Post-processing: Adobe Photoshop CS4; Gradient XTerminator
Date(s): October 3, 2010
SQM reading (begin - end): 19.34 - 19.42