I awoken several mornings at 5AM to try to capture Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) with my remote scope only to find clouds or fog at Chiefland. Finally, yesterday (Saturday, Dec. 12) morning, I did catch some comet photons and the image is attached. This is a binned 2×2 12-minute total exposure LRGB (3-minute subs) with the 14.5-inch RCOS and Apogee camera. Yes – the comet is moving (about 3/4 degree per day) and I had to process twice – once for the comet and then for the stars. There are two tails, one blue ion tail and ruddy dust tail. This is not an antitail. The comet is about 4.8 magnitude 28 degrees up near Venus in Virgo just as astronomical twilight starts about 5:50AM EST at Chiefland. Haven’t seen the comet visually yet. Will try it with my Questar from Boca Raton tomorrow morning. It would be great to see an image of this with a bigger field since the ion tail runs right out of my field!!
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151207.html — Great image of Comet (APOD – Dec.7)
Wanted to see Comet C/2013 US10(Catalina) visually so got up at 5AM (Dec. 14, 2015) and made the above image with my Canon 60Da on a tripod. Skies were clear and Venus blazing but I couldn’t see the comet naked eye. Didn’t try the Questar. I did, however, manage to capture it in a 6 sec exposure, ISO3200, as well as a Geminid meteor which I did see!