Very deep closeup of Comet Lovejoy

[tornado33]

Hi all
With perfectly clear and quite dark (for Newcastle) skies I decided to go close and deep, got out the 300mm f2.8 flourite lens from Bert, used his idia of external aperature stop, about f3.5, modded 350D, UV/IR filter, 8x5 mins ISO200. Taken today, 2nd January. Big gradients to smooth out with Iris and even had to use Gradient Xterminator to get rid of the last bits of gradient. Even then there might be some small blemishes there

Gee the lens works well. Even wide open theres only a little flaring of bright stars but slightly stopped down, its fantastic.

Full sized version here (http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/Scott/lovejoy8x5minsiso4200uvir300mmf4.5m od350d2jan12.jpg)

Note there is no central condensation around the nucleus, its just all diffuse, I wonder why?

The comet is so faint theres no chance of seeing it naked eye from here, I had to take short high ISO pics to locate and frame the comet. Even then it is barely visible and I had to stretch the subs to be able to see it at all. It now has very low surface brightness.
Scott

[Lester]

Fantastic view Scott. Thanks.

[Astroman]

Awesome! closeups :) beautiful shot though...

[tornado33]

Thanks.
This unprocessed 5 minute sub shows how faint the comet is.

[Astroman]

Well done on the processing then, really bought it out well. Thanks for sharing it with us.... Amazingly tight stars tooo, wish my 400D could get that tight...

[tornado33]

Thanks.
I found a way to get very tight focus. I set camera to Jpeg large, iso to 1600 and lens wide open.After connecting camera to laptop I take 1 sec exposure, and open it with Microsoft Office Picture manager, then zoom right in 200% or more. Then I move focus a very small amount and take another pic, then simply click right arrow in MS Picture manager, it advances onto the same zoomed in part of next pic, I can then alternate back and fourth to see what pic has best focus. I keep doing that by trial and error, after a few goes I get stars as small and tight as possible. Theres all sorts of focus managers out there, but I prefer the good old fashioned visual method, simply get the stars as small as possible and youre done.
Scott

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi, Scott.
I love that image!
They skould rename it the ghost comet.

Thanks.

Justin.

[Clayton]

Very nice image Scott. :)
Congratulations :thumbsup:

[kinetic]

That is one beautiful image Scott, well done!

Steve

[RB]

Excellent Scott !

[Garyh]

lovely closeup Scott!
Good to see a narrow field shot.
cheers

[Liz]

Great image Scott. :thumbsup: yes, sooooo many stars, beautiful. :)

[SkyViking]

Fantastic image and superb processing. It's great to see a closeup of this. I too wonder how the nucleus can be invisible and still produce such a massive tail.

[naskies]

Great job on the capture and especially the processing, Scott! Now that I'm back home in light pollution, I'm tempted to whip out the refractor to image the comet heat area after seeing what can be done :)

[h0ughy]

just got back from holidays Scott - i go away and it is perfectly clear for you - top shot mate, excellent effort

[StephenM]

Great close-up Scott. Like Rolf says, it's amazing how a small nucleus produced such a spectacular tail!

Cheers,
Stephen

[John Hothersall]

Thats a powerful image considering the raw you showed, great result especially with focus.

John.

[strongmanmike]

Yep, that sure looks like a comet alright Scott :thumbsup:

Compare with Halleys long tail back in March 86 with a 300mm Lens and 6X7 film :)

Halleys Comet (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/73603078/original)

Mike