This is a different 'take' on the more traditional Comet Hartley 2 image depicted here. When I process comet images, I end up making a picture of the comet (without stars) and a picture of the background starfield (without the comet). Then I paste them together. That's how one can get a stationary comet in a stationary star field.

In reality, the comet is constantly moving against the star field. If one guides or centers on the comet, then the stars can be made to 'move'. I took about an hour's worth of subs and centered the on the comet (along with applying some different layering opacities) to create this little beauty.

I imaged the comet from the Okie-Tex Star Party. It was my first time to the venue. Except for the wind I enjoyed it thoroughly. I used an Orion ED80 and Canon T2i to capture the image. A Losmandy G11 mount was used. PhD guiding software was employed. Subs stacked using Nebulosity and processed with Photoshop CS3. I moved my truck around to block the wind as best I could.

The area/framing of the image is shown to the right. Clicking on the image will bring up a larger size image.

Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)