126P/IRAS 2023-Jul-20 Dan Bartlett

Estimated at Magnitude 14.8, Comet 126P IRAS has just passed perihelion on July 5, 2023 and is 1.6 au from Earth. I generally image comets closer or brighter (or both) however I had a window of opportunity this AM (July 20), just prior to dawn and captured 49 x 120 seconds for this stack. It's difficult to see where the comet's tail ends due to the brightness and inopportunity of some of the IFN right where you don't want it. The added Comet "ONLY" image shows the stacked comet with the background and star removal remnants blurred to give a better idea of the comet.

Cheers,
Dan

Observational details:
Backyard setup
scope: C14 D = 356mm; fl =729mm; F# 2
camera: asi 2600mcP
exposure: 49 x120 sec
Seeing: 4/5
Transparency: 9/10
Observer: DEBartlett
Location: June Lake, California, USA

Image Info (ALL)
Projection ............... Gnomonic
Projection origin ........ [1080.004068 1340.363851] px -> [RA: 2 13 14.561 Dec: +17 46 01.17]
Resolution ............... 1.877 arcsec/px
Rotation ................. -3.972 deg
Reference system ......... ICRS
Observation start time ... 2023-07-20 10:33:06 UTC
Observation end time ..... 2023-07-20 10:35:06 UTC
Geodetic coordinates ..... 119 04 46 W 37 46 30 N 2357 m
Focal distance ........... 728.88 mm
Pixel size ............... 6.63 um
Field of view ............ 1d 7' 33.8" x 1d 23' 53.5"
Image center ............. RA: 2 13 14.585 Dec: +17 46 01.10 ex: -0.000049 px ey: +0.000044 px
Image bounds:
top-left .............. RA: 2 15 24.216 Dec: +18 30 03.16 ex: -0.000622 px ey: -0.001094 px
top-right ............. RA: 2 10 40.366 Dec: +18 25 22.00 ex: +0.001368 px ey: -0.000815 px
bottom-left ........... RA: 2 15 47.856 Dec: +17 06 27.05 ex: -0.000673 px ey: +0.000197 px
bottom-right .......... RA: 2 11 05.799 Dec: +17 01 47.02 ex: +0.000350 px ey: +0.000180 px