C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) is a long-period comet discovered by Hideo Nishimura on 12 August 2023. With an observation arc of seven months, the orbital period of the comet is estimated to be 434 years.

An eccentricity of 0.996 gives the comet a semi-major axis (average distance from the Sun) of about 57 AU, which is comparable to the average distance of Eris at 68 AU.

The comet will not leave the Solar System and will come to aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) in 2227.

In February, I spent a two week skiing vacation in Arosa, Switzerland. Repeated snowfall made for some of the best snow conditions in years. The drawback was that I only got one clear night for astrophotography during my entire stay.

I decided to spend that night at the Bergkirchli (Mountain Chapel). Built in 1493, one year after Kolumbus discovered America, the chapel is the oldest building of Arosa. I found that it aligns nicely with the Winter Milky Way and Orion.

EXIF

Canon EOS Ra

Sigma 28mm f/1.4

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Two panel vertical panorama, each a stack of 20x 30s @ ISO800, f/2, unfiltered + 6 x 120s @ ISO3200, f/1.4, filtered

Foreground:

Stack of 3 x 30s @ ISO400, f/11 during blue hour.

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Image Description:

On a rocky summit of an icy planet sits a remote research outpost. This frozen world orbits a inconspicuous star in a minor arm of a giant barred spiral galaxy.

Named after a mythical creature of an ancient culture that once dominated the planet, this scientific outpost is called the Sphinx. The Spinx is mythicized to have mercilessly killed those who couldn't answer her riddle.

The Sphinx station has a prime view on one of the galaxies major star forming regions, named after another mythological figure, a giant hunter. Not all scientific riddles within the hunter are solved yet, but fortunately the Sphinx hasn't killed any scientists so far.

The thin atmosphere of the planet at this high altitude location contains enough water to form clouds, which shroud the observatory in freezing fog about 40% of the time. If the clouds part, the hunter's giant molecular clouds of ionized hydrogen are lighting up the sky.

I had the opportunity to visit the Sphinx outpost with benjaminbarakat in September for a night of astrophotography. After a sternous night, we were happy that both the planet and the mythical creatures had shown mercy. The hunter had made its appearance and we escaped this stunning place without getting killed by lack of oxygen, the cold or the wrath of the Sphinx.

EXIF
Canon EOS EOS Ra
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L ll @ 50mm
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
4 panel panorama, each a stack of 7 x 60s @ ISO1600
Foreground:
Panorama of 4x 2s @ ISO400 during blue hour

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Image Description:

What is the creepiest place you ever shot at? For me, it definitely is this cave village which I visited during this year's summer astrophotography trip to the Canary Islands with my buddy Benjamin Barakat

The place was pretty well populated while we scouted it in the afternoon, but it was completely deserted when we arrived in the middle of the night to capture it with the early morning Milky Way.

As we exited out of our car, we were engulfed by pitch black night. Spooky shadows were flying around us, giving off eerie cries. Some sounded like crying babies, while others resembled the coughing of chain smoker with a terrible hangover.

After overcoming our initial shock, we pointed our flashlights into the sky and saw that the shadows were big birds. They did not seem to like our lights though and flew so close to our heads that we felt the flapping of their wings. We quickly dimmed our lights and headed down the trail to the cave. After some research the other day, I found that the birds are relatives of the Albatross, called Cory's Shearwater.

Fortunately, the birds did not follow us into the cave. We set up our cameras and took some test shots. I was completely stunned by how dark the place was. In a three minute exposure at ISO 12'800, only the sky outside the cave confirmed that I had not forgotten to remove my lens cap.

Time to dodge the eerie birds once more. I hiked back to our car to get my low level lights, while my buddy Benjamin found an excuse to wait in the safety of the cave.

Lighting up the place proved to be a tricky task, but after some tinkering with my lights, I found an satisfactory solution and we were finally able to do something productive.

EXIF

Canon EOS Ra

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Low Level Lighting

Sky:

Stack of 5 x 60s @ ISO1600

Foreground:

Panorama of 4 panels, each a stack of 5 x 120s @ ISO6400

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

This chapel with a breathtaking view of the Swiss Alps not only is one of the most tranquil places I know, it is also perfectly oriented for astrophotography. The reasonably dark sky allowed me to capture it under the setting winter Milky Way with its wonderful plethora of red emission nebula.

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

2 panel panorama, each a stack of 21 x 30s @ ISO1600, tracked

Foreground:

24 x 30s @ ISO1600

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Have you ever wondered what a future Mars base may look like? For me, the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur on the Plateau de Calern is the perfect model for such a station.

The futuristic looking buildings in the foreground are the working quarters of the Grand Interferometer of 2 Telescopes (GI2T) and the cupolas in the background on far right belong to the Soirdete Infrared Interferometer. The green laser is emitted from the 1.5m telescope of the MéO laser ranging observatory, which is able to track low earth orbit satellites and can measure the distance to the moon to a precision of under 1cm.

The sky above the observatory suffers from light pollution from the brightly lit Côte d’Azur and the nearby city of Nice, but still proves that the dimmer side of the Milky Way with its red Hydrogen emission nebulas, countless open clusters, dark interstellar dust lanes is sparkling with celestial wonders. The bright Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy are sharing the same region of the sky.

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Vertical panorama of 3 panels, each a stack of 5 x 30s @ ISO1600, tracked

Foreground:

Stack of 5 x 60s @ISO1600

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

This image shows the rising Seagull Nebula soaring high above Mt. Druesberg in central Switzerland.

The Seagull Nebula is an emission nebula on the borders of the constellations of Monoceros and Canis Major. Its location 10 degrees below the celestial equator puts it rather low for northern hemisphere observers, which may be the reason why it is not as famous as other nebula that rise higher during the night.

For deepscapes however, a deep space object needs to hug the horizon, which makes the Seagull Nebula a perfect target.

Despite careful planning, the resulting image contains a big surprise: The Seagull Nebula is not that splendid bird with a bright body and wispy wings and tail you can see in this deep image. I didn't even know that these structures exist. What is known as the Seagull Nebula is just the bright body part that remotely resembles a soaring bird on its own - it is the bird in a much bigger, more detailed bird! How awesome!

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/4

Baader Ultra Narrowband H-alpha and Olll filters

Modified Skywatcher AZ-GTI mount, controlled with ASIair

Sky:

Canon EOS 6D @ 200mm:

26 x 60s @ ISO1600 for RGB

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro @ 96mm (to match the 200mm full frame FOV)

20 x 300s H-alpha @ Gain 200

10 x 300s Olll @ Gain 200

Foreground:

8 x 90s @ ISO1600

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Yesterday, I spent a beautiful night at this scenic lake with my buddy benjaminbarakat

Shortly before moon rise, I had captured all my planned shots and was ready to call it a night. While packing my gear, I noticed that the peaks started to glow in the light of the rising moon. Despite being tired from shooting two nights in a row, Benjamin and I decided to set up again and shoot a panorama of the lake in moonlight.

The result confirms an old photographers wisdom:
It is always worth to linger a bit longer.

EXIF:
20 panel panorama from fixed tripod.
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Tamron 15-30mm f2.8
20 x 30s @ ISO6400

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Over northern China, I was shooting the Cygnus region of the Milky Way, while we passed some active thunderstorms and due to the atmospheric activity, the ride was not very smooth. To get at least a few sharp exposures, I had to push my camera to a higher ISO setting than normal.

For once, this was a good thing, as it enabled me to capture some red sprites. These reddish flashes are a very fleeting phenomena, lasting only a few tens of milliseconds and the high ISO setting helped to make them visible.

Sprites occur in clusters above the troposphere at an altitude range of 50–90 km (31–56 mi). They were first photographed 31 years ago in 1989.

Riding high above the sprites are some deep red astronomical nebulas: North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula and the Gamma Cygni Nebula, belong to the constellation Cygnus, while the Elephant Trunk Nebula and the red Garnet Star are located in Cepheus.

To complete this celestial tour, the Andromeda Galaxy is hugging the horizon to the lower left of the sprited.


EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2
Stack of 7 x 2.5s @ ISO 12800
Mount: Boeing 777-300ER

Copyright: Ralf Rohner