Panstarrs C/2011 L4 as shot atop the Belper Glacier 05/04/13

[Perkil8r]

A stack of 89 from 149. 15 secs @ISO 800 taken with modded 350D on ED80 mounted on EQ5 Unguided.

 

Stacked (eventually) in DSS using Comet settings. Post process (curves and levels and a bit of noise reduction) in PS5

 

panstarrs002 by Perkil8r, on Flickr

Edited April 6, 2013 by Perkil8r

[Doc]

Thats well smart Mike.

[angusw2]

Nice one Mike, it shows a much broader fan-like tail than can be seen visually.

Angus

[dawson]

Mike that's great. The core and the tail stand out so much better than any other images i've seen. Good work.

Why is the comet rotated 90 degrees, does this happen at the imaging, stacking or processing stage?

Good work. And even better to know i was there when it was taken.

James

[Perkil8r]

It's because of the orientation of the camera on the scope and with it being on an equitorial mount. I always leave the camera in the same orientation so that when I revisit old targets such as Orion etc I know the subs should stack quite well with previous data.

[Brantuk]

Excellent shot Mike (as always)

[Sheila]

Nice one mike  

 

Sheila

[+Graham]

Wow so thats what it looks like.

Nice one Mike.

[Tweedledee]

That is lovely Mike.

 

Like the colours in it.

[Daz Type-R]

Fantastic Mike, very happy that I have seen Panstarrs with my own eyes but love the photos to fill in all the details us "dirty visual" guys miss.

Brilliant shot!

[Orion]

A stack of 89 from 149. 15 secs @ISO 800 taken with modded 350D on ED80 mounted on EQ5 Unguided.

 

Stacked (eventually) in DSS using Comet settings. Post process (curves and levels and a bit of noise reduction) in PS5

 

panstarrs002 by Perkil8r, on Flickr

Lovely comet photo. Is the 350D a DSLR and what does it mean when it is modded? and why is it modded? I take it that the 350D camera is piggybacked on a telescope (ED80) which in turn is mounted on the EQ5 equatorial mount. When you take 149 exposures, does your software just programme that to happen sequentially and automatically without having to press the button to take each image?

[Guest peter shah]

nicely done

[Perkil8r]

Lovely comet photo. Is the 350D a DSLR and what does it mean when it is modded? and why is it modded? I take it that the 350D camera is piggybacked on a telescope (ED80) which in turn is mounted on the EQ5 equatorial mount. When you take 149 exposures, does your software just programme that to happen sequentially and automatically without having to press the button to take each image?

 

Thank you for your kind words... I will try and answer as best I can, please feel free to ask more if I miss something or get your question wrong.

 

The 350D is a Canon DSLR yes. It is modded by removing the filter from infront of the sensor. This is usually done to allow more of the red detail to come out in Deep Sky Objects, in particular Nebulae.

 

The camera was mounted to the ED80, in effect using it as the lens. The ED80 was mounted on the EQ5

 

I have a digital remote shutter release / timer. I program that to open and close the shutter for the desired exposure length and interval between exposures. In this case 15 second exposures with an interval of 5 seconds. I set the qty to 399 and left it running until I thought I had better swap to another target or more often when the target goes out of range due to it's position or cloud.

 

I hope that helps

 

Peter Shah

 

Nicely done.

 

Praise indeed, thank you. Your images are an inspiration.