Comet Lemmon

Last night at Harold Campbell, our local South Florida dark site (around Bortle 5), the session started off under cloudy skies. The clouds were stubborn, hanging around most of the evening, but luckily they stayed away from the northwest—right where the comet was glowing. I ran into a few issues along the way: my guider refused to calibrate, so I decided to roll with 60-second unguided exposures instead. Then autofocus failed due to a software setting, but with the comet already sinking low, I didn’t have time to troubleshoot. I dialed in focus manually and got back to imaging before it disappeared behind the horizon.

In the end, my polar alignment held steady enough for those 60-second unguided shots, and I’m really pleased with how the final image turned out. Despite the hiccups and the haze, the comet’s green core and long, sweeping tail came through beautifully. The gear for the night was my Askar FRA600 with the reducer, giving me 420mm at f/3.5, paired with the ZWO 2600 Duo camera on a Sky-Watcher 150i mount. Sometimes determination—and a bit of luck with the weather—makes all the difference.