Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARR) first image

[rogerg]

G'day all,

I'm sure I posed this early this morning but can't find the thread! so I'm guessing I rushed out the door of the observatory to work without hitting submit!.

Last night I took my first image of this comet. I've scheduled it in to have a photograph taken each night, but this was the first clear night for a week (very frustrating weather in Perth lately).

11 x 60 second exposures
12" SCT on PME unguided
Scale 1.26"/pixel
FOV approx 10' x 16'

The sky was getting reasonably bright by the end so hence only 11 exposures have been used in this composite out of the 20 taken. The others were looking more like flat frames than light frames. I took a series of 15 second and 30 second exposures too not knowing how fast the comet was moving but trailing isn't obvious in this 60 second so I'll stick with 60s for the future.

http://rogergroom.com/astro-photography/comet-photography/photographs-of-comet-c2011-l4-pannstarrs/

Regards,
Roger.

[peeb61]

AAAh Roger...This is what it looks like? Weather HAS been really nasty,
Very nice indeed.

Paul

[Merlin66]

Very nice capture!
(You need to change the plate scale on the image ;-) )

[rogerg]

Ahh, not just Perth then :)



Thanks :) ...and oops :) I'm always in too much of a rush! Will fix it up when home later this evening. scale measured in sec per sec ... sec squared ... neat :)

[rogerg]

Updated the page with last night's image. More exposures, more contrast, but not any significant change otherwise.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Nice work Roger!

Looking forward to imaging this one.

Cheers,

Justin.

[John Hothersall]

Had a go at this last July and it looks like it is starting to brighten now considerably from the 12th mag back then.

John.

[rogerg]

I was clouded out last night :( Back to several days of bad weather now it seems. It might be a long time between drinks for these comets at the moment, for me.

[naskies]

Very nice, Roger! Looking forward to seeing the sequence develop.

[moksta]

Hi Roger

Great pics!!!! Nice and close!

I'm in Perth also, are you able to tell me what time you imaged this and some rough co-ords??

I tried this morning but couldnt find the comet at all due to the twilight. It was around 4.45am...

I am going to try again tomorrow morning.

Cheers and well done again!


---- sorry i just realised your image was a few days back... any updates to time and coords for this weekend?

[rogerg]

Hi there Matt,

Thanks for your reply! As far as finding the comet goes, you are best to look it up in software such as Stellarium, Sky Safari, TheSky, Heavens Above, etc. The comet moves relatively quickly so it helps having up to date information directly from such software.

I'm not sure how easy the comet is to find naked eye, I haven't observed it visually yet. I know from my photographing it that the twilight sky washes out the comet at about 5am for my photographs, so it seems to me the best time to observe it at the moment is about 4:30am.

Good luck with your observing :thumbsup:

[Harley]

Excellent
I went out this morning between 4am &6 am with binoculars couldn't fined it i live in Melbourne we had a small thunder storm Friday night I thought it would be cloudy Saturday morning got up anyway and it was very clear
Maybe next time
Great photos Roger