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/...40786051/large

Greg.

[iceman (Mike)]

Lovely!

[CometGuy]

Fabulous Greg!

[renormalised (Carl)]

Nice shot, Greg

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

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

[h0ughy (David)]

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 (Adrian)]

Fantastic!

[rogerg (Roger)]

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

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

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

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by iceman

Lovely!

Thanks Mike.

Originally Posted by CometGuy

Fabulous Greg!

Cheers

Originally Posted by renormalised

Nice shot, Greg

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

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

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.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

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

Thanks Houghy.

Originally Posted by Lester

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

Yes I felt like the bush astronomerman.

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Fantastic!

Thanks for that.

Originally Posted by rogerg

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

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

Originally Posted by SkyViking

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

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 (Michael)]

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

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

Got any photos of the setups?

Mike

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Greg of a unique event.

Ross.

[naskies (Dave)]

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]

Originally Posted by 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 you probably swore..?

Got any photos of the setups?

Mike

I do. I'll post it later on.

Originally Posted by Ross G

A beautiful photo Greg of a unique event.

Ross.

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

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks Dave.

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

Greg.