Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Tracked by Sky-Watcher and the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS Lens

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was in the sky, so, of course, it had to be photographed.

While single-exposure images of this comet looked nice, my upgraded tracking mount, a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi, was still in the box and longing for use.

This image is the result of stacking sixteen 30-second exposures using Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) software (it's free).

After aligning the mount and establishing the Canon EOS R5 Mark II settings, the shutter release button on a simple Vello Wired Remote Release was locked down (push down and slide forward), and the R5 II's continuous shooting mode captured about 45 minutes of images while I did something else. The middle 8 minutes of frames had the darkest sky and were selected for processing.

The Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens was chosen because it had the desired focal length, it creates extremely sharp stars, and it has a rotating collar to add the rotation direction natively missing on the mount. It proved an outstanding choice.

A larger version of this image is available here.