Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) - 20 min Between Clouds!

This is my only version of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) which was taken in the evening of January 31, 2023 between waves of clouds. The comet was located in the constellation of Camelopardalis only 14 degrees from Polaris. I was not planning on imaging this but it was in a great location to catch from the Happy Frog Observatory (my astroshed) especially since my neighbors caught down several trees.

I was not expecting much since the moon was out and I did not have a lot of time on it but I did manage to catch a very faint, thin white ion tail which points away from the sun. The bright core is easily distinguished as is the tan-brown dust tail. The green coma located in front of the core is produced when ionizing UV light excites the odd assortment of molecules comets contain. In particular, certain organic substances undergo transformation when exposed to the sunlight and form diatomic carbon (C2), a metastable allotrope of carbon which gives off the green glow when excited.

So why such a short integration ~20 min? The weather! I captured five 1 minute subs of LRGB for a total of 20 minutes, then reoriented the comet and repeated the plan but the sky began to fill with high clouds only a three more exposures made the cut.

Lastly, I used some new PixInsight techniques and some of my old tricks to process this comet which was especially helpful with such a small integration time. I have also been asked what share my process so I have attached my attempt at the bottom of the document:

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) - 20 min Between Clouds!
Dates: 1-31-23
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 6 x 60, R 6 x 60, G 6 x 60, B 5 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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PROCESS

1) PixInsight WBPP
New) followed awesome video by Alaskan Astro video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCMyGNZlx5o&t=883s)
2) made starless versions of registered subs using StarXTerminator (batch)
3) stacked the registered starless subs using Comet Alignment
4) DBE on the LRGB images
5) EZ Soft Stretch on LRGB images
6) NoiseXTerminator
7) Convert to tiff (16), bring into Photoshop for defects that flats did not remove (I need new flats)
8) back into PI and combine the separate channels to make an LRGB version
9) play with this using PI and PS to your liking (more noise reduction as well)
10) Combine the RGB channels from the original stacked LRGB versions from WBPP
11) EZ Soft Stretch on RGB image
12) NoiseXTerminator
13) StarXTerminator
14) Combine the Final Starless with the RGB Stars
15) Final adjustments in PI and PS