In winter 2018 comet 46P Wirtanen was showing a great appearance in the evening sky at short focal lengths. I was looking forward to testing a very compact refractor I purchased just a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the optical performance was not as optimal as advertised, but I did not realize earlier than at first light.

However, as Comet Wirtanen was quite an oppotunity for comet chasers, I decided to post the result anyway. To be honest, comet pictures which are necessarily generating star trails - unless you do extremely sophisticated image postprocessing - are pretty tolerant for minor flaws in the optical definition. The fact that pictures are not stacked to star position but to comet movement makes removal of artefacts like airplanes impossible. That's why you see one airplaine trail so prominently - unlike in most of my deep-sky pictures displaying non-moving objects.

Eventually I returned the scope and went for a more expensive but extremely satisfying solution. My new standard tool for short focal lengths is my 60 mm Takahashi refractor with an effective focal length of 280mm. Comet photo updates and some widefield deep-sky vistas visualize why I am so happy about this solution. Stay tuned for updates!

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