Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear)
Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear) is located in constellation Andromeda and is about magnitude +13.5 according to recent reports. If so this is the faintest comet I’ve captured thus far. Dark sky certainly helped, I haven’t been able to capture any comets less than mag 13 in the light polluted Denver suburbs.
Image taken around 4:30 to 4:50 am on Sunday May 20, 2007 at Cactus Flats North in the Pawnee National Grasslands 8 miles east of Briggsdale, CO. The sky was clear, transparency was good (humidity was high), no wind, and the temperature around 45°F. Telescope was Celestron Nexstar 11 with F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Camera settings were 10/14 gain, medium gamma, 256 integration (8 seconds). Registax4 was used to flat field, dark subtract, align, stack and enhance 8 minutes of video for each of two frames in final image. Animation created with Photoshop2.