Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

Everything in the observatory runs on the PC that is in there. The PC got stuck in January and I was not able to access it remotely. Because of the stroke, I have not been out to the observatory since September of 2021. Kirsten went out there and got the PC unstuck. She also helped me install some new remote control software. I needed some new remote software because AnyDesk was blaming me of being a professional and made their software unusable. So we installed the free open source program called DW Service on the laptop in the house, so I can see the temperature indoors, and on the PC in the observatory.

Just like the observatory PC, I would be stuck without Kirsten.

The picture was taken on January 25 with a fully modified Canon Rebel camera (this is my one shot color (OSC)) on a TEC 140 telescope from the Alpenglow-Torrey House Observatory in the dark sky community of Torrey, Utah (Bortle 2-3). Four 75 second sub frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker = three minute photo. Processed in Photoshop (CS5). Unguided, no calibration frames.

Because the PC in the observatory is of an age, and so is the hardware that it runs, it runs on Windows 7. As such I was not able to update the software for recent things like the comet. But I was able to update some other software called Stellarium. I noted the names of some nearby stars and used the names of those stars to locate the comet with the observatory PC.

Location of the comet on January 25, 2023:

Astrometry.net