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

iceman (Mike) · #1 31-12-2007, 04:53 PM

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 (Michael) · #2 31-12-2007, 05:19 PM

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

davidpretorius · #3 31-12-2007, 05:26 PM

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] (Paul) · #4 31-12-2007, 05:38 PM

Nice Mike

See you caught M33 in there as well.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #5 31-12-2007, 05:44 PM

Nice imaging, Mike.

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

Clouding over here though

leon · #6 31-12-2007, 06:22 PM

Nice capture Mike,

I cant even see M33 from my place.

Leon

h0ughy (David) · #7 31-12-2007, 11:52 PM

WOW what a nice wide field shot mike - congrats

glenc (Glen) · #8 01-01-2008, 04:12 AM

Mike, that is a great field and image.

Do you have a hi res version?
Tuttle is brighter than M33 and Holmes is a similar mag to M33.

iceman (Mike) · #9 01-01-2008, 08:36 AM

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 · #10 01-01-2008, 08:50 AM

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 · #11 01-01-2008, 09:04 AM

Thats a lovely image Mike.

RB (Andrew) · #12 01-01-2008, 09:44 AM

That turned out beautifully Mike, well done !

tornado33 · #13 01-01-2008, 01:18 PM

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

fringe_dweller · #14 03-01-2008, 05:17 PM

ooo la la! thats the bizness mike

love dis kinda stuff

Outbackmanyep · #15 04-01-2008, 07:48 PM

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

Cheers!

iceman (Mike) · #16 04-01-2008, 08:45 PM

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

iceman (Mike) · #17 07-01-2008, 06:16 AM

Here is a link to a large size (1600px wide) version (520kb jpeg).

glenc (Glen) · #18 07-01-2008, 09:33 AM

Thanks iceman, nice bits of ice.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #19 07-01-2008, 10:34 AM

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.

fringe_dweller · #20 07-01-2008, 03:26 PM

wow that bigger version is something else dude!

cheers for that!