Doing battle with Q4

[rogerg (Roger)]

Hi all,

I continue to do battle against my Comet C/2014 Q4 (Lovejoy) images, trying to end up with a stack which has pinpoint stars along with a stack of the comet I won't say how many hours I've lost to this!

Manual work using PixInsight and CCDStack haven't yielded any pleasing results (except simple stacks of the comet which look great). I returned to DSS this afternoon and came up with the attached, using default settings! Luck maybe. I did find I had to use raw dark and flat frames, seems maybe DSS can't handle the 32bit FIT master dark/flats I compile in PixInsight !? (DSS would crash if I used them).

The DSS stack is 8x180s @ 3200ISO (Canon 6D)

I've also attached a stack which is simply 8x60s @ 6400ISO aligned on the stars.

Full size images here by clicking each image: http://rogergroom.com/astro-photogra...14-q2-lovejoy/

Which is best? Well, they're different

The battle continues ....

[suma126 (Shane)]

looks really good . I have given up trying to stack this comet my self.

[anthony.tony]

nice work - what Mag. is it - Tony

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

I like the first one. Is there a ghost comet in number 2?

About Mag 5.5 Tony.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Cool as ice !

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by suma126

looks really good . I have given up trying to stack this comet my self.

It's been tricky for me. Not moving fast enough or slow enough I think

Originally Posted by anthony.tony

nice work - what Mag. is it - Tony

Thanks

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

I like the first one. Is there a ghost comet in number 2?

Wow, I would guess you are right - I just assumed it was a star with a bit of nebulosity or somethin, didn't give it a second thought! but of course, it looks jus like the comet. Doh!

Originally Posted by astronobob

Cool as ice !