Comet Lovejoy Proline 16803 Pentax 55mm

[gregbradley]

I took many images of Comet Lovejoy. Canon 40D, Canon 5D Mk11, FLI Microline 8300, FLI Proline 16803, various Canon lenses, Pentax 55mm Pentax 165mm and even TEC110FL telescope.

This is one from mid last week from my dark site in remote NSW under ideal conditions.

FLI Proline 16803, astrodon filters, Paramount MX mount, TEC110FL and MMOAG with Lodestar SX for guiding, Pentax 55mm lens with FLI PDF focuser mounted on top of the scope (it looked pretty funny really - I'll post a photo of the laughable setup later).

I was lucky to take any guided images as I went to my dark site (4.5 hour drive) and realised I left the PMX counterweights at home.
So some PVC pipe for a spacer and a couple of gym weights later with tape seemed to work just fine!!!

This one is Pentax 55mm F5.6 HaLRGB 5 15 6 6 6 minutes.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/140786051/large

Greg.

[iceman]

Lovely!

[CometGuy]

Fabulous Greg!

[renormalised]

Nice shot, Greg:):)

First time I've seen a solar system object done in Ha and L :):P

Brings out the colours of the nebs in the galaxy!!!:)

[h0ughy]

i agree with Carl ^^^^^^ - great to see

[Lester]

Wonderful view Greg. Good improvisation to balance the set-up on your mount. All the best.

[AG Hybrid]

Fantastic!

[rogerg]

Very nice colourful image Greg. Shows how faint the comet has become.

[SkyViking]

Gorgeous image, and yes it really shows how faint it is now.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike.



Cheers



I thought it would enhance the image a bit. You don't really have a lot of time to make decisions when imaging it. Its only available for about an hour and a half.



Thanks Houghy.



Yes I felt like the bush astronomerman.



Thanks for that.



Yes it is qite faint and not really naked eye anymore.



It sure is.

I have more in this series and hope to post them soon. One that might be good is where the 2 Magellanic clouds are in the shot with the comet.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Top stuff Greg, the Pentax system looks to be working well.

Didn't realise about the counter weights until you got there huh?..Geeeez :doh: you probably swore..? :question:

Got any photos of the setups?

Mike

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Greg of a unique event.

Ross.

[naskies]

Beautiful. I see what you mean about the larger CCDs maintaining star colours better than DSLRs. I also didn't realise that there was so much H-alpha nebulosity around the Coalsack.

[gregbradley]

I do. I'll post it later on.



Thanks Ross. It cost a couple of sleepy mornings to catch it.



Thanks Dave.

The tracking allows longer exposure, plus the Ha plus the cooled camera and high sensitivity all adds up.

Greg.