good point houghy! no probes sent to this one!!?? weird eh? oh well
(PS: I keep picturing his holiness the Pope in full regalia, pointy hat ect. bent over the monitor producing that shot hahahhahaa cant get it out of my head )
Comet 73P from 01:30
4X120sec ISO1600 calibrated and combined in IP and PS adjusted for levels curves and gradients. Taken through Orion ED80. Uncropped image, resized and quality adjusted in PS CS
Comet 73P from 01:30
4X120sec ISO1600 calibrated and combined in IP and PS adjusted for levels curves and gradients. Taken through Orion ED80. Uncropped image, resized and quality adjusted in PS CS
LOvely shot there Paul!!!! were you actually tracking the comet, or was the star trailing part of the IP process?
PHOTO-OP: Mark your calendar: On May 8th at approximately 0300 UT (11 pm EDT on May 7th), fragment C of dying comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will pass very close to the Ring Nebula in Lyra. from space weather so we might have to check the date.
h0ughy: regarding photo op close encounter with the ring nebula, that really favours the U.S. time line That happens at about midday to 1 pm for adelaide - seeing the comet moves about 5 degree's from the 8th to 9th local time, for us, we miss out on the really really close encounter/superimposing unfortunately, not to say that it wont still be nice for us nearby.
having said that, I notice fragment B and G are kinda close (with in a degree or two) to GC M13 on the AM of the 4th may - that should look pretty good in a widefield telescopic view!
When I was checking setting up I grabbed a couple of widefields first.
00.15
2-5-006.
3@ 240 sec
ISO800 @ 80mm FL
calibrated with a single dark, aligned stacked digital processed first in IP then quick curves and levels and crop and resize in PS.
For some reason IP turned the final image reddish when applying Digital developement didn't worry too much about it in the end product. You will see M13 off to the left near the palm fronds.
I've had all sorts of computer problems over the last few days as you may know. I've installed XP on the machine I image with in this room and it's drivers and the Mintron camera get along like cat and dog. Makes imaging very difficult, as if it wasn't hard enough before! It's almost enough to make me give up imaging until I get something that works properly.
Anyway, got two pics last night. The brighter fragment C and another fragment in the second pic. Which fragment is this? B?
Thanks Paul. Each frame from the camera is 2.5 seconds long and is part of an avi of hundreds of frames, much like how everyone takes planet pics but each frame is a longer exposure. Total duration is over 20 minutes so the comet has moved in this time. Frames are tracked and stacked in Registax.
I've had all sorts of computer problems over the last few days as you may know. I've installed XP on the machine I image with in this room and it's drivers and the Mintron camera get along like cat and dog. Makes imaging very difficult, as if it wasn't hard enough before! It's almost enough to make me give up imaging until I get something that works properly.
Anyway, got two pics last night. The brighter fragment C and another fragment in the second pic. Which fragment is this? B?
Fragment C was easy to see in 7x50's also.
Just don't make the mistake and load windows XP pro 64bit on a new 64bit machine, there are no drivers for anything.
Wonderful images there, could you go for the third one or cant find it? I cant find it myself but it must be there.
Kevin's Back!! and in style ,well done!! Nice to have some dusty targets again isnt it ...magnitude estimates are kinda almost meaningless with the dusty comets I reckon, when you have so much intrinsic brightness in the dust tail itself.
Got C's little brother/sister there in B I see - what a performer that one is turning out to be
another very nice widefield from you 1ponders
h0ughy, PC's are only now going 64 bit? ... geez - weve had that in macs for at least 4 years now (dual G4's onwards)
I hear vista, when it comes out soon, will only work on 64 bit machines (dual cores and AMD's?) - is that true?
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Thats a ripper Paul - well met sir! 
