Two Comets - 8P/Tuttle and 17P/Holmes widefield

[iceman]

This was taken last night (30th December) at our local darkish sky site, at Mangrove Mountain, between 9:30pm and 10pm local time.

Conditions were great early on, which let me capture this widefield view with both comets. Clouds spoiled the opportunity to get a close-up image of them through my ED80.

Taken with my Canon 350D + Sigma 17-70mm lens (@ 33mm), f/4.0. Piggybacked on top of my ED80 on EQ6, auto-guided with a DMK21AU04.

The shot is a stack of 4x 120s exposures @ ISO800, ICNR on. Added and DDP in ImagesPlus, gradient removal and noise reduction in Photoshop.

The second image is annotated showing the objects in the FOV.

I'm glad to have captured this image, but was disappointed not to be able to do more during the night.

Thanks for looking.

[Mick]

Awesome image Mike it's been quite a year for comets.
Happy new year.:D

[davidpretorius]

that is really something.....I am thinking you need to start printing a few of these and hanging them on th wall of the pool room.........if that room is currently a childs room or kates, then simply show em who wears the pants!!!

fantastic stuff!

[[1ponders]]

Nice Mike:thumbsup: See you caught M33 in there as well. :clap:

[ballaratdragons]

Nice imaging, Mike.

Tonight will be great. Tuttle will be right at M33! :thumbsup:

Clouding over here though :sadeyes:

[leon]

Nice capture Mike, :thumbsup: I cant even see M33 from my place. :sadeyes:

Leon :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

WOW what a nice wide field shot mike - congrats

[glenc]

Mike, that is a great field and image. :thumbsup:
Do you have a hi res version?
Tuttle is brighter than M33 and Holmes is a similar mag to M33.

[iceman]

Thanks guys! And thanks to Rob K for the inspiration through his shot of the pairing the other day.

Glen, i'll upload a higher-res shot today.

[Garyh]

Great shot Mike. I tried to do exactly the same that night but low cloud rolled in, and the same last night.
Well done and happy new year!
cheers Gary

[Lester]

Thats a lovely image Mike.

[RB]

That turned out beautifully Mike, well done !

[tornado33]

excellent work, got both nicely, big contrast in comets there.
Scott

[fringe_dweller]

ooo la la! thats the bizness mike :) love dis kinda stuff :thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

Great stuff Mike! Few and far between seeing 2 comets that bright in the same part of the sky!

Cheers!

[iceman]

Many thanks for your comments, much appreciated. It could be the only view I get of them for a while.

[iceman]

Here is a link (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/downloads/20071230-holmes-tuttle-1600px.jpg) to a large size (1600px wide) version (520kb jpeg).

[glenc]

Thanks iceman, nice bits of ice.

[[1ponders]]

You were definately in the right place at the right time Mike. I tried for a similar shot on the 5th and there was no way I was going to get both of them into even a 28mm lens FOV. Boy that Tuttle is really moving out. It was way up in Pisces. :eyepop:

[fringe_dweller]

wow that bigger version is something else dude! :) cheers for that!

[Tamtarn]

Boy the higher res version is fantastic. This is a great image Mike nicely composed, lots to see with the comets galaxy and clusters.

Beautifully done :thumbsup:

[glenc]

Saw both comets last night, Tuttle with 20x80 binoculars and my 12" Dob, and Holmes with the naked eye and 20x80s. I was going to look at Holmes with the 12" but the clouds beat me to it. I couldn't see Tuttle with the naked eye but people with better eyes might be able to.

[glenc]

I just looked up the distances to these comets, Tuttle is 44 million km away and Holmes is 315 million km away, 7 times more distant. Tuttle is 3.6 deg above AR Ceti at 10pm tonight (pa 145), Holmes is near beta Per.