C/2020 V2 (ZTF) 2023-Dec-13 Dan Bartlett

Comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF) Glides Through the Grus Triplet, 2023-12-13

ASTROBIN: https://astrob.in/a2w8fr/C/
So, I've turned over to the dark side by renting time on professional equipment. A first for me to use someone else's equipment (remotely- Chilescope) and rent the 90 minutes, was a must, if I wanted to image this gathering. Although comet V2 poked it's tail above my southern horizon by a little over 5 degrees it was best I use a southern hemisphere setup. Ultimately the scope is larger than what I'm accustomed to (0.5M vs 0.36M) and the CCD vs CMOS is new to me also. Also I never use mono for comets, but here I had no choice. I went with 7 x 300sLum/3x180secR/3x180secG/3x180secB and at a dollar a minute it was a fun experiment. I was notified by email when the sequence started and could follow along on the website with a log of what the scope and camera was performing. By morning I downloaded the image file as well as the calibration frames. Fairly simple.

Aside the fact that processing a CCD mono LRGB filters and a new scope is new to me, this comet is almost as easy as it gets for imaging comets. It's motion is as such that it is nearly stationary, in reference to the starry background through, a 10 minute period with my usual 729mm fl setup. A little more complex through the Chile scope.

Here is my attempt at the C/2020 V2 (ZTF) gathering with the Grus Triplet of galaxies.
ImageInfo (all):
Projection ............... Gnomonic
Projection origin ........ [1580.622579 1269.347106] px -> [RA: 23 19 25.028 Dec: -42 08 26.57]
Resolution ............... 0.963 arcsec/px
Rotation ................. -0.899 deg
Reference system ......... ICRS
Observation start time ... 2023-12-13 01:12:52 UTC
Observation end time ..... 2023-12-13 02:39:18 UTC
Geodetic coordinates ..... 70 45 54 W 30 28 15 S 1600 m
Focal distance ........... 1927.66 mm
Pixel size ............... 9.00 um
Field of view ............ 50' 41.2" x 40' 44.2"
Image center ............. RA: 23 19 25.043 Dec: -42 08 26.57 ex: +0.087974 px ey: -0.162079 px
Image bounds:
top-left .............. RA: 23 21 39.068 Dec: -41 47 41.41 ex: -1.381125 px ey: -1.632430 px
top-right ............. RA: 23 17 07.965 Dec: -41 48 33.03 ex: +0.783920 px ey: -1.605631 px
bottom-left ........... RA: 23 21 44.432 Dec: -42 28 22.14 ex: -0.066692 px ey: -0.849939 px
bottom-right .......... RA: 23 17 09.440 Dec: -42 29 09.81 ex: +0.668597 px ey: +0.169292 px