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Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 night 6th-7th Jan 2015


Johnnyaardvark

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OK... I guess I'll be the 1st on the forum (I am sure more will be imaging this :) )


 


Well, before trying out my new barlow had a look for Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 (Priorities). Was all pretty late so didn't help as the comet was dropping in Alt and the moon was now up. The earlier window in the cloud did not appear (Clear outside and BBC weather some what failed that evening)


 


This image is pretty rough... I had a short window of time to follow it in a gap between my house and a neighbours roof from a part of the garden shaded from streetlamps. With all the rush I forgot id been shooting in jpg earlier in the day to demo something :facepalm2:. So, I was not able to improve the processing of this using my darks/flats (DSS complained about the files not being "raw")


 


Anyhow, on the positive side I saw it visually a second time and now in the ED80, got practice using the RA and Dec data from Stellarium (which put it nicely near centre of the eyepiece) and had some practice processing comets in DSS


 


I took some subs at 90 seconds as well as these but combined with the roof of a house, some passing cloud and the moon washing out the sky I don't think they are worth adding to the data.


 


This is 9x 30s exposures at 800ISO. Nikon D5000 and ED80.


 


A bit noisy and with some dust bunnies but never the less a capture of the comet and some experience to build on. Hoping for some clear skies and a visit to a darker site to get better data and a tail!


 


Advice on comet processing and processing generally more than welcome.


 


May post a very short timelapse to go with this later...


 


Regards


 


Steve


 


 


16235132695_f157159de1_b.jpgComet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 night 6th-7th Jan 2015 by sja88, on Flickr

Edited by Johnnyaardvark
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Thanks for the comments.


 


It was actually pretty clear that night (but not till after about 12 if I remember) and with a little (sparse) intermittent cloud... I eventually packed away about 2.30 when thick cloud rolled in but even this cleared again by the time I had nearly packed up. Suffered for it the next few days though... been shattered! 


 


As for the image... colours not too bad but still suspect I could improve my processing of the data I do have. I used DSS to stack the images. It stacked the comet (selected in each frame) and then combined it with a stack of the stars after so that was a good bit of learning in it's own right. (My little PC did struggle!) The image output from DSS is so light though and appears to have very little data. I think this is largely due to the sky brightness (which it quoted in the registered images as being about 30% I think.) I guess the moon, imaging location and only having a few minutes of data is probably the reason why I am missing any tail.


 


I am interested in any info on how to get more out of this data though. Any advice greatly appreciated.


 


Steve


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I reckon there is the very tiniest hint of a tail there pointing up and left between the two brighter (8th mag) stars (HIP20431 and HIP20407 in Stellarium) forming a near equilateral triangle with the coma on the bottom right. With a bit more processing that tail might show a bit more. Stellarium pin points your image to round about 00h50m on the 7th. The two stars mentioned are about a quarter of a degree apart. Check it out on Stellarium, but make sure your comet data is freshly downloaded for accuracy. That really is a nice image showing various star colours as well. :thumbsup:

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Thanks. Stellarium data up to date. There may be a little something there but either more processing or probably more data required. Hopefully will try again tonight either from home or my decide on a little trip out somewhere to avoid the street lamps. Getting mixed reports on the weather... BBC vs Clearoutside!


 


Steve


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