On Tuesday night, March 12, comet C/2011 L4 PAN-STARRS was closest to the crescent Moon and a little easier to see in the twilight sky. I took advantage of the alignment by heading down to the San Xavier Mission southwest of Tucson. In this image, you can see the crescent Moon to the right of the missions tower while the comet is just left of the tower at almost the same height as the Moon. This image was taken with my 50mm lens on my 20D with an exposure of 1 second at f/1.8, ISO 200.
Comet PAN-STARRS is so close to the Sun that it sets very quickly, only about an hour after sunset and about half an hour after the sky has darkened enough to see the comet. Here, the front towers of the Mission are just right of the setting crescent Moon with the comet just above the 2nd lamp left of the small mission tower left of the Moon. This image was taken with my 50mm lens and an exposure of 2 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400.
