A comet + Stars Over Bucks + LRGB

A comet

Credits: Stars Over Bucks

Filters: Optolong LRGB filters

 

 

 

A comet caught between two very different stars. 
On the morning of September 7, 2026, I captured Comet 220P/McNaught passing through Taurus, just besides two strikingly different stars: Omicron Tauri, glowing warm yellow, and Xi Tauri, shining blue-white.
The colors aren’t an artifact of the image. They reflect the stars’ very different temperatures and stellar types. Omicron Tauri is a cool G-type giant, while Xi Tauri is a much hotter B-type system. 
And then there’s the comet—a small, icy body making its way through the inner Solar System. 220P/McNaught had an extraordinary summer, undergoing major outbursts in August that dramatically increased its brightness before beginning to fade again. The comet is far less bright when I captured it last but it’s sporting a longer tail. 
Three objects in one frame, each telling a very different story:
 Omicron Tauri — ~200–290 light-years away
Xi Tauri — ~210–220 light-years away
220P/McNaught — currently just over 1 AU from Earth
An awesome reminder that the night sky isn’t just black and white.
This image was captured from my remote telescope at KKRO observatory in South Africa (Peter Dunsby). 

 

 

 

Telescope: Askar FRA400 f/3.9
Camera: Zwo ASI 2600MM Pro
Exposure: 2 x 1min RGB, 20 x 1min L
Mount: Zwo AM3
Guiding: ASI120mini, 30mm scope
Filter: Optolong LRGB filters
Software: NINA, Pixinsight

Hope you like it.