Comet Lovejoy from Wiruna

[Ross G]

Hello,

Made it to ASNSW Wiruna on Saturday and it was a perfect night.....one of the best I have ever seen at Wiruna.

I was able to image Comet Lovejoy for 2 hours experimenting with a range of exposures from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

The processing was very difficult.

Here is my first version of Comet Lovejoy.

The photo is here http://smu.gs/1CluwI7

What do you think?

Thanks for looking.

Ross.


TELEVUE NP101 101mm F5,4 Refractor
QHY8L OSC CCD
SKYWATCHER NEQ6Pro mount

WO 66mm Guide Scope
QHY5 Guide Camera

Guiding with PHD
Capture with EZYCAP
Processing with Deep Sky Stacker & Photoshop CS2

[cometcatcher]

Great colours and nice shot Ross. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

That's a superb image Ross. You really nailed that. Love the processing as well. Very respectful of the comet, not overexposed at the core plus pinpoint stars, wow. Subtle colours and the tail nice and sharp. As you say its hard to get all these factors in balance.
No processing artifacts either which are easy to get doing comets.

Superb.

One for the trophy room!

Greg.

[atalas]

Awesome comet Ross!

[Ross G]

Thanks Kevin.



Very high praise Greg...thank you.

I was very lucky.
The bulk of my exposures were between 30 seconds and 90 seconds and I could not get any detail in the tail from these.
Luckily I took 5 x 5 minute exposures as an experiment, thinking they would show too much movement. However, it was only with these 5 minute exposures that I was able to produce a descent photo.
My processing and work flow was very basic...guide on the stars, stack in COMET+STAR mode in Deep Sky Stacker then Photoshop.



Thanks Louie. Glad you like it.
It was a lucky night!

[Phoenix]

This is a wonderful image Ross. I keep coming back to take another look at this one. Very nice.

[venus]

Amazing capture!

[Camelopardalis]

That's a cracker, well done Ross :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Have to agree with Greg, one of the good Lovejoy images, nice work :thumbsup:

Mike

[batema]

Beautiful. Well done.

[multiweb]

That's a corker Ross. Awesome! :bowdown:

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Ross. Great colour and nice detail in the tail.

[blink138]

wow that is an ace image!
pat

[Ross G]

Thanks Steve. Glad you like it.



It was such a lucky capture.

Thank you Lydia.



Thank you Dunk.

[Ross G]

Thanks Mike. I was lucky to have tried 5 minute exposures, otherwise it would have been a failure.



Glad you like it Mark.
Thank you.

[Ross G]

Thanks Marc :)



As I've mentioned before Paul, I was very lucky, but glad you like it.
Thank you.



Thank you Pat!

[Star Catcher]

Very nicely done Ross. I like the colour and detail as well.
Ted

[Ross G]

.
Thanks Ted. Glad you like it.

I had attempted it from my backyard in light polluted Sydney with a 200mm lens but it was very faint.

The dark sky at Wiruna has made such a difference.