Arrived at Carden about 4 am. Started shooting at 4:11, and had about 20 minutes of imaging time before the clouds rolled in. Note the three hours between 4 and 6 am in the Clear Sky Chart when the comet was visible.
Thankfully the red dot finder made locating the comet very easy, so that saved a ton of time.
No wind, -2°C. Didn’t have time for a SQM reading, but Orion was amazing…
Really needed the 9.25″, but the conditions wouldn’t have allowed for setting everything up.
The comet was not visible at all naked eye. Didn’t even try with binoculars. Also imaged c/2025 K1 (ATLAS) with the Seestar, but the data was garbage due to the terrible seeing.
Before I left for Carden I tried to get Saturn because the rings are almost completely edge on, but only had about 2 minutes before the sky was completely overcast. The image below was shot through high thin cloud, so there is no surface detail. Astronomy is fucking bullshit a lot of the time. 22 hours of darkness a day for the next 6 months, and all of it overcast…
Still counts. Behold…
If it ever clears up, I’ll try again… Oh, and I saw a fox and two meteors, so I’ve got that going for me.