Lovejoy from 16th and 17th of January

[multiweb (Marc)]

Here's my two shots that I've finally managed to process. They're about the same amount of integration time: 50x1min for the first one and 20x2min for the second one. Taken with an FSQ106N and a QHY8 over two nights. Focus is a little soft in the first one, better in the second batch. I need a couple more comets to nail the processing. Getting there...

Bigger ones here and here.
Enjoy the views.

[paul71 (Paul.)]

Very nice indeed Marc !

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Very Nice Marc - the second is a ripper. Nice tail detail.

Steve

[h0ughy (David)]

i am green with envy - bloody brilliant

[Ross G]

Hi Marc,

Two brilliant comet photos!

I love the colours and they are so detailed and sharp.....especially the second one. (...TAK sharp as they say!..)

Looks like you have nailed the "comet processing".

Good luck.

Ross.

[byronpaul (Paul)]

Marc,

Brilliant images .... Bet you're loving that FSQ

Noticed you used the QHY8 for these images. What camera drivers and windows OS are you using on your imaging PC.

Paul

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by paul71

Very nice indeed Marc !

Thanks Paul.

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Very Nice Marc - the second is a ripper. Nice tail detail.

Steve

Thanks Steve. Yeah I like the second one better. The longer subs brought up better colors in the background.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

i am green with envy - bloody brilliant

Thanks David.

Originally Posted by Ross G

Hi Marc,

Two brilliant comet photos!

I love the colours and they are so detailed and sharp.....especially the second one. (...TAK sharp as they say!..)

Looks like you have nailed the "comet processing".

Good luck.

Ross.

Thanks Ross. Processing is getting easier but still not 100% with data acquisition either. Need to try other methods to make the processing less painful. I'll post a link to a reduced PSD sometime today so people can have a look at the layers and one way of doing it.

Originally Posted by byronpaul

Marc,

Brilliant images .... Bet you're loving that FSQ

Noticed you used the QHY8 for these images. What camera drivers and windows OS are you using on your imaging PC.

Paul

Thanks Paul. Yeah having a blast. Absolutely loving that scope. I'm not worthy.
I use an old QHY8. First model that came out in 2007 I think. It's a pretty old camera. About 7 or 8 years. No TEC. I still use Tom's drivers in Nebulosity 2. I've always used Nebulosity for my data acquisition with PHD since I've started in the hobby. If it ain't broke.... windows 7 home 64bit, 8GB RAM. I use a small HP notebook. No frills. $500 or there about.

[zardos123 (Brad)]

very very nice, detail is superb...... love it
regards brad

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Brilliant top quality images Marc.

[pluto (Hugh)]

Those are excellent Marc, great work!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by zardos123

very very nice, detail is superb...... love it
regards brad

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Brilliant top quality images Marc.

Originally Posted by pluto

Those are excellent Marc, great work!

Thanks a lot guys.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeah these are good Marc, nice work

Mike

[Star Catcher (Ted Dobosz)]

Great job Marc, lovely images!
Ted

[multiweb (Marc)]

Thanks again guys.

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Wow!

Really nice shots Marc! Very smooth, well done!

[Paul Haese]

Well done Marc. The tail detail is well defined and sharp. Like you I found processing a little different. The damn comet moves so quickly the tail smooths out too much. Like you I am looking forward to the next comet. Perhaps there will be another great comet. Its been a little while now since Terry's great comet.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Rod771

Wow!

Really nice shots Marc! Very smooth, well done!

Thanks a lot Rod.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Well done Marc. The tail detail is well defined and sharp. Like you I found processing a little different. The damn comet moves so quickly the tail smooths out too much. Like you I am looking forward to the next comet. Perhaps there will be another great comet. Its been a little while now since Terry's great comet.

Thanks Paul. Yes I agree with you. I think the issue was that Q2 was moving a lot faster than 'average'. I PMd Damian Peach and he said he used 2min subs bin2x2 with a STL11k for the lum. He got some really cool details in the tail and even managed to mosaic it. I guess if you have a sensitive camera with low readout noise then you can get away with it.

My QHY8 is very very noisy for anything under 5min. A quality DSLR would have been more suited like what Phil Hart did. For the next comet I'm going to approach all this in a totally different way. I'll image with the FSQ still, but I will guide with a piggy backed 90mm refractor of the same FL (600mm) on the comet nucleus itself, then do 5min exposures at least and see what comes out.

[yoda776 (Matt)]

Awesome images. One day I would be happy if I could take shots half as good as these are. Great job!