Comet Lemmon what a ripper!!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

After seeing Rolfs image of comet Lemmon, I just had to have a go.
While not as good, I'm happy with the result the comet is moving at quite a clip so 2.5 minutes at ISO 1600 was as long as I wanted to go.

The final image is a total of 22.5 minutes, and I finally got DSS to stack the comet and stars so there is no trailing.

8" f/4 astrograph, orion (http://www.astronomyforum.net/wiki/Orion) mini guider, HEQ Pro 5 mount.

Unmodded canon 1100D baader coma corrector.

2.5 minute subs at iso1600, total 22.5 minuts, darks frames, flat frames applied.
Standard stack in DSS (http://www.astronomyforum.net/wiki/DSS), processed in PS (http://www.astronomyforum.net/wiki/PS) 7.

Cheers,

Justin.

[phobos]

Beautiful capture Justin.

[LewisM]

FANTASTIC!

I couldn't find it visually tonight, so I made the best of it while them moon stayed out of the picture on other targets.

[Forgey]

Awesome capture Justin!

[Jon]

Nice, Justin. Looks great.

I was also fired up by Rolf's image. I got about 60 usable 30" subs in four goes over the course of the night. Scratching my head as to how to stack them. I'll get there ...

[skysurfer]

Yesterday night I saw it from South Africa very clearly near the star Delta Octantis.
I estimate it at mag 7. Even with the 15x70 it is easy to find.
As it is close to the pole I think a capture with a steady camera suffices when exposing no longer than a minute.

[jsmoraes]

beautiful and impressive one ! :thumbsup:

[Astroman]

Very nice image Justin, maybe do a mosaic next time to fit the huge 3 degree tail in :) Excellent image, were you tracking on the comet head or just Sidereal?

[gregbradley]

What a great shot.

Greg.

[Larryp]

Fantastic shot, Justin!

[pixelsaurus]

Nice job Justin. I did 17x20s lights @ISO 1600 last night, but it still looks a bit like a globby. I did stack them in DSS but not sure about that program. I might have a go with IRIS later today. I could barely find it in my 7x50's but it stuck out in my 20x70's. Hope the cloud will go away for tonight. Cheers.

[BlackWidow]

Great shot Justin.. If the wind and cloud go away I would love a try at this one. How do I locate this target? Is thier a current file for the LX200, or what site logs the position the best. Nothing worse than long exposures on nothing



Mardy

[Liz]

Great image Justin!! :thumbsup:

[anthony.tony]

Can anyone tell me what Magnitude The Comet has reached -Reguard's Tony- They are great Images .

[anthony.tony]

Here is a finder Chart of the Comet position -- Tony.this wil be at about 10pm tonight- Here is a link to a newspaper Story NZ newspaper not everyday a Comet gets Headlines --Tony http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10862401 Found website COMET CHASING link - http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/

[Matt Wastell]

That is awesome! Congratulations!

[anthony.tony]

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/2013-the-year-of-the-comet-comet-lemmon-puts-on-great-show-over-the-southern-hemisphere-2549736.html - This Comet is Making Headlines another image by NZ astronomer and Story ---- http://spaceweather.com/ Agreat Rap up on Spaceweather -Tony

[Rigel003]

Stunning shot, Justin. Congratulations.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks to all for the comments!!



Hi Andrew,
Not sure how to do a mosiac with comet Lemmon. The second image with the comet tail would'nt register the same as the comet head. That is if you want the stars and comet to be sharp in DSS.

Any idea's??



Hi Anthony,

Reported last week at mag 6, I think it's a little brighter than that now. I'll try for a visual estimate tonite.

There's a couple of nice conjunctions coming up with comet Lemmon.

Feb 13-14-15 it will be 5 degrees from the centre of the SMC.
On March 10-11 it will be 1.4 degrrees from NGC55, but only 12 degrees above the western horizon.

So get your camera's ready.

Cheers,

Justin.

[jakob]

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:
Very nice, love the tail!
Thanks for sharing.

[allan gould]

Excellent image and I bet that tail made you wag!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Jacob!



Thanks Allan!

Yes it certainly did!!

Cheers,

Justin.

[Lester]

Cracker image Justin, thanks for the view.

[SkyViking]

Fantastic image Justin, you nailed that stacking :) The tail is getting brighter for sure - it'll be interesting to follow this comet over the next couple of months. Thanks for the view!

[ChrisM]

Impressive image Justin. Well done.


And to answer Mardy's query:
For up to the minute coordinates - look up the Comet / Ephemeris section on the CalSky website. I punched in the RA/Dec, and there it was!

Chris

[asimov]

Extremely nice! Well done.

[astronobob]

What a ripper that is Justin, That will be hard to Trump ! !

[peeb61]

Top image Justin!!
I have tried DSS in comet mode but the resulting image has a bad gradient through it.

Any ideas?

Paul

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Lester!



Thanks Rolf!

Yes I was glad the stacking worked out, But I don't know why it worked this time. Other attempts gave weird stars, or would'nt stack correctly on the comet.
Just hope the next time works.



Thanks Chris!



Thanks John!



Thanks Bob!

I'm hoping I can do it a little better, going to use the ED80 to get more tail.



Thanks Paul,

Are you using Canon raws?
Don't know whether that may be the problem. I downloaded the beta version of DSS so I could use raw, but found that it gave a very dark background and seemed to destroy some of the faint nebulosity and colour in images.
So I went back to converting to tiffs, and seems to give a better result. Of course this is just my experience, and may have something to do with settings in DSS.

Cheers,

Justin.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Sorry mardy for missing your question.
Thanks to Chris for the answer.
You can use this site too. http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/SoftwareComets.html
This gives you orbital elements for most software.



Sorry Andrew,
Missed this too!
I was using sidereal tracking.

Cheers,

Justin.

[peeb61]

Hi Justin,
No Canon Raws, I have been taking images of this comet with my QHY8L and this uses fits.

Paul

[stardust steve]

That's a real beauty. I'm really hoping to achieve something similar. More practice needed :)
Love that big tail and beaut star background:thumbsup:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Steve!

Hope you get a good run ay Lemmon.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Johno]

Great work Justin, superb image.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks John!

Cheers,

Justin.