Galileo's Camera

It seems like my last post was more than 11 months ago. Due to my job change and severe weather in Sri Lanka (more specifically Colombo), I have not been able to get in to astrophotography much. I had dropped my expectations a bit when we started getting freak showers last week (again) but then I noticed that towards the early mornings, the sky is extremely clear. So here we are: Venus - Nexstar 4SE and Canon 550D Jupiter and Galilean Moons  (from top to bottom: Callisto, Ganymede, Io and at the bottom, Europa) - Single shot off of Nexstar4SE and Canon 550D Jupiter - Stack of 50 frames (Nexstar4SE and Canon 450D) Jupter and Io (probably) - Stack of 250 frames (Nexstar4SE and Canon450D) I think I need to play around with more stacking options and perhaps it might be possible to see the rest of the moons too.

The year 2015 kicked off with a new comet incoming. Comet C/2014 Q2 is still on its approach towards the sun and is expected to be closest to the sun on 30th Jan. Right now it is just inside the constellation Eridanus Just below Orion. Cutting the mumbo-jumbo out: The details of the comet can be described well using the standard astronomy related terminology, but that may not mean much to non-astronomers. I thought I might as well put down a basic Q&A in as least technical words as possible :) 1. Is it visible yet? Is it visible in Sri Lanka Yes it is. But... It is just below the constellation Orion. Orion is one of the most recognised constellations in the sky but in case you are not too sure about it, here's how it looks.   The comet is below the constellation Orion, but it is very faint right now. According to what we know right now, if the sky is very clear and if you are looking at it from a place where absolutely no light pollution, you could see it with naked...