Pan Starrs Comet in Texas
by Ray Devlin
Title
Pan Starrs Comet in Texas
Artist
Ray Devlin
Medium
Photograph
Description
This is a shot of the PanSTARRS Comet, seen low in the sky over the George Bush Park, in Houston, Texas.
The PanSTARRS Comet was discovered using the PanSTARRS Telescope at an observatory in Hawaii in 2011. The comet has a trail that it is nearly 120,000 km in diameter, and was it was visible to the naked early in March of 2013. At this time it passed the Planet Earth at a range of approximately 100 million miles, which is just about the same range as the sun is to the Earth. The comet comes around only once every 106,000 years, so don�t expect see this one again!
The PanSTARRS comet was due to appear low on the western horizon just after sunset. However, the moon made matters difficult by adding an extra touch of brightness the sky near the comet�s path. This made it a little difficult given that fact that Houston, being one of the largest metropolis� in the USA, has a significant light pollution problem. However, I made my way west out to the Barker Reservoir regardless. The dam�s levee, and the delightfully large and vast open spaces of George Bush Park, provided enough of a dark sky and high enough view of the horizon to get a shot of the the comet when it became visible.
Image details: Nikon D800 and Nikkor 70-300mm VR, at a focal length of 300mm. The aperture was set wide open to f/2.8 and ISO of 100, and a 30 second exposure. I will admit that I did not actually know that I had captured it in this image, until a short while later, given that the comet was barely visible to the naked eye. I actually intended that this shot would catch the blues and oranges of the sunset.
Uploaded
March 15th, 2013
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