COMET 46P/Wirtanen with EF-M 32mm f/1.4 today... (PICS)

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 - parked by a road in the lower mountains. The EOS 6D DSLR was setup on the tripod with a red glowstick on the ground so I could see the feet of the tripod in the dark..

.
Comet Wirtanen this morning with the EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 STM lens...
Comet 46P/Wirtanen has arrived in our night skies at last. I decided to drive out at the last moment this morning with three cameras to see if it would show up on their digital sensors. The most respected Weather prediction was that it would be cloudy but that prediction was wrong. It was no surprise that I was able to photograph the Comet although the 32mm f/1.4 is a rather bright lens to work with. When I return again to photograph the comet in a week when it's larger and brighter, it may have a tail visible as one is now starting to form - although I couldn't see it. The magnitude last night was about 4.4 and when it gets to 3 on the 16th it should be larger and brighter and easier to see. Right now, the glowing coma around the nucleus of the comet is said to be about twice the diameter of the moon although not all of that is visible without long, stacked exposures on an computerized EQ head. I didn't have that luxury so I've simply taken some single long-exposure shots with a self timer and a tripod. This is what I brought along...
.
* EOS M + EF-M 22mm f/2 STM
* EOS M6 + EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM
* EOS 6D + EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
* Manfrotto Tripods (2x)
* NiSi Natural Night Filter (77mm) with stepping rings from 77mm to 43mm.
* Adjustable Flashlight
* Mosquito Repellent (don't ever get this on your gear).
.

EOS M + EF-M 22mm f/2 STM - Comet Wirtanen (center) with 2 large (& 1 faint) meteors.

.
When I arrived at my location, about an hour from my home, I turned off the light in my car and stepped out into a fairyland of bright stars There was no moon and no Milky Way visible when I arrived but the night sky was filled with hundreds of tiny shooting stars. I counted 5 meteors over the Pleiades Constellation in a single second. If that wasn't magical enough, every 20 minutes or so a large bright green and orange meteor would drop towards the ground dropping sparks behind it like a flare. It was actually surprising to see so much happening at once. In this region of the sky (to the North where I was facing) there were no less than four meteor showers occurring at the same time: The Chi Orionids, the Geminids, the Monoserotids and the Northern Taurids. I believe the majority that I saw were probably from the Gemenids. Whilst I saw plenty with my eyes, more showed up in my shots although I didn't get any of the really bright ones.
.

EOS M6 + EF-M 32mm f/1.4 lens + NiSi NN Filter - a view of the EOS 6D + 85mmL lens with the unmistakable green glow of Comet 46P/Wirtanen in the distance (upper center).

.
I set up the EOS M6 first and kept pausing to watch the meteors. Then I set up the original EOS M with its wider 22mm lens. Sure enough, Comet Wirtanen was exactly where it was supposed to be in the sky, almost directly over the Pleiades Constellation. Combined with the constellation in Orion, they formed three evenly-spaced corners of a triangle in the night sky. I focused on a star but then decided to focus on a distance street light in the distance about half a kilometer away instead. Returning to the night sky, it was just a matter of experimenting with different settings after putting the cameras into Manual mode.
.

In this shot: EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 + NiSi NN Filter - with the Pleiades Constellation behind it. (Taken with the EOS 6D + 85mm f/1.2L using Tungsten WB)

.
Later I set the NiSi Natural Night Filter onto the EOS M6 to gauge the results. Those of you who saw a prior thread concerning problems with Step Rings not mounting properly on the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens, my solution was to just thread it straight onto my Hoya UV filter where it sat snug. I set the WB to "Daylight" and the results were reasonable.
.
I retired the EOS M early and used the EOS 6D with the bright f/1.2L 85mm lens. Later I took some 'creative' images to see what might occur.
.

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 STM lens + NiSi NN Filter - Wirtanen's Green diatomic carbon coma.

.
A question I was asked when first using the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens is "what were my thoughts on using it for Astrophotography?" and I replied at the time that I thought it was a narrow FOV at 50mm+ but that it would be good for tighter views of the core of the Milky Way but that it ought to be good for Comets etc. It seems to work very well in this regard.
.
The images here were all taken in M-Mode with a self timer in JPEG. The narrow FOV from the 85mmL lens was balanced by the f/1.2 aperture. The 32mm was pretty close although the smaller aperture at f/1.4 combined with the smaller APS-C sensor meant a little lens light... which was just fine by me since there was plenty of starlight to work with.
.
.

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 lens + NiSi NN Filter. You can see the green glow of Comet Wirtanen above and the EOS 6D + 85mmL lens peeking out below.

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 STM + NiSi NN Filter - The Large Magellanic Cloud (Dwarf Galaxy).

A shot of the M6+32mm+NiSi filter - Taken with the 6D+85mmL which was on silent timer.

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 + NiSi NN Filter - another shot of Comet 46P/Wirtanen

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 - I'd hoped to capture the comet through a crystal sphere that I'd pulled out of a windchime. But I couldn't focus in the dark through it using the camera's LCD. Manual Focused used here .. which was close enough. I was walking about with a Red glowstick which showed up in the refracted and flipped image here.

M6 + 32mm f/1.4 - Turning the 6D+85mL due South to shoot the Magellanic Clouds. Tungsten WB used - after removing the NiSi NN Filter in preparation of departure.

EOS M6 + EF 32mm f/1.4 lens with Auto WB. I was ready to leave and had reset my camera settings but took one last shot before packing the tripods up.

EOS M + 22mm f/2 lens - the wider view of the 22mm lens at f/2.2. AF + Tungsten WB used.

EOS M6 + EF 32mm f/1.4 STM - (cropped for those who dislike clicking on images)

EOS M + 22mm - vertical 3 shot panorama showing Comet Wirtanen above the Pleiades .

.
When I next get the opportunity to photograph this comet (hopefully in a week), I'll be using the EF 135mm f/2L USM lens on the EOS 6D because that lens served me well with Comet ISON, Comet Lovejoy and Comet PanSTARRs in recent years while it was mounted on the original EOS M. At f/2 but with a FF sensor it ought to be just about right. And I'll be more than happy to use the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens on the EOS M6 again. It's got just enough focal length and a narrow enough field of view to be ideal for this sort of subject. The 22mm f/2 lens was good but the comet was rather tiny in the frame. The difference in apertures made the 32mm f/1.4 lens a useful one. With Wirtanen growing a tail today and with the Coma growing brighter, it's shaping up to be much brighter and I just hope the Sydney weather offers me a good day or two next weekend. Wirtanen is visible is skies all around the world at the moment. It reached visibility to the naked eye in China (of all places) first although I couldn't quite see it myself this morning. Each order of magnitude is something like 2.5 times brighter so if it reaches the predicted 3rd Magnitude it will be as bright as a dim view of Venus. Some science sites were predicting 4.0 but that's open to change since Comets are so completely unpredictable.
.
In the Southern Hemisphere Comet 46P/Wirtanen will be parked almost right alongside the Pleiades on December 16th when it's predicted to reach Peak Brightness.
.
Note: These images have been edited in Lightroom and Photoshop to increase contrast (in some instances) and to reduce noise (in some shots).
--
Regards,
Marco Nero.

That is seriously cool. A green comet. Wow!

Thanks for the (as ever) detailed post.

Marco Nero wrote:

EOS M6 + EF-M 32mm f/1.4 lens + NiSi NN Filter - a view of the EOS 6D + 85mmL lens with the unmistakable green glow of Comet 46P/Wirtanen in the distance (upper center).

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 lens + NiSi NN Filter. You can see the green glow of Comet Wirtanen above and the EOS 6D + 85mmL lens peeking out below.

EOS M6 + 32mm f/1.4 - I'd hoped to capture the comet through a crystal sphere that I'd pulled out of a windchime. But I couldn't focus in the dark through it using the camera's LCD. Manual Focused used here .. which was close enough. I was walking about with a Red glowstick which showed up in the refracted and flipped image here.

M6 + 32mm f/1.4 - Turning the 6D+85mL due South to shoot the Magellanic Clouds. Tungsten WB used - after removing the NiSi NN Filter in preparation of departure.

Hi Marco,

many thanks for your detailed report and for sharing your pictures. All of them are really great but the ones above are my favorites. I like those out of focus stars turned into bokeh disks preserving their original colors which otherwise get burned out if focussed correctly and not preserved by stacking exposures. It's amazing how the comet just stands out by its color when viewing those images.

Pls keep up with your project. Looking forward to the images from your observation trip next week.

Best regards,

I see in your last shot of the M6 it finally has a red ring.

Nice photos. No

Nice photos of the comet, Marco.  My favourite is the LMC with the bright Tarantula Nebula clearly visible.  I just noticed the streak NE of it.  Seems too well defined for a faint meteor. A nearby asteroid perhaps?  Only 10 seconds of movement.

MarioV wrote:

Nice photos of the comet, Marco. My favourite is the LMC with the bright Tarantula Nebula clearly visible. I just noticed the streak NE of it. Seems too well defined for a faint meteor. A nearby asteroid perhaps? Only 10 seconds of movement.

The sky was really busy.  I was quite astounded at just how many objects were passing across the sky at any time.  Looking over the shots from the M6 there's one shot I took of the Orion constellation which has no less that six streaking satellites running in different directions in the same shot.  In another picture taken with the EOS M + 22mm lens, there was five or six satellites visible in a singe image.  The 6D + 85mm f/1.2L lens was more sensitive and picked up fainter shooting stars and satellites.  And when I scroll through the various sets they animate and you can see some of the satellites getting brighter and dimmer and brighter and dimmer suggesting they were spinning.  Only one aircraft got into the shots.
.

EOS 6D + 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens.  - Presumably a Geminid meteor just below Comet Wirtanen.  Taken while setting up the cameras and experimenting with exposures.