Comet Lovejoy QHY8 / SLR (film) lens

[kinetic (Steve)]

Apologies for rabbiting on in my own thread to myself but
this is worth documenting too. If only for my bad memory

I previously had little faith in using DSS to get the best registering
of frames. I'm not sure what I based this on ages ago, but I do
believe I did some thorough comparisons to other progs.

Well...Today I put my most recent set of the head of Lovejoy
thru DSS, initially to try something else that Neb wouldn't do.

That is, to attempt to register on the very faint comet head
in the first and last frames, and let DSS interpolate movement
of the comet in the set. DSS does this apparently. News to me.

Well , alas, that bit isn't sorted yet, but as a bonus, the basic register
did better than Neb. Way better.

Here is this morning's result thru the QHY-8/ SLR lens in D.S.Stacker:
(a gradient, but Iris can deal with that)

Steve

[kinetic (Steve)]

What a difference a week and a half makes...and a moon.
Last night's result with a 3/4 full moon risen.
This is my first window of opportunity since the first days of
January. Clewds, mainly.
Same capture routine: 100 x 30 sec frames, stacked.
Comet tail is just visible in the full frame shot.
Rob, Lester, Gordon and Greg did way better than me.
Suburban skies FAIL

Steve

[gregbradley]

You got some good captures there.

Catching an image of the comet isn't that easy is it?

Luckily at least, it seemed to be a very slow moving comet and being so large a widefield approach seemed to work the best so it didn't move much between subs. Plus it virtually had no nucleus (perhaps that's why it faded so quickly it was already virtually spent from going around the sun).

It was a very different beasty to Garrad which moved very fast.

Greg.

[kinetic (Steve)]

30 sec set from tonight, the 15th. 60 sec set still to process.

Edit: added 60 sec set.

No moon up this time.

Steve

[Lester]

Good one Steve, looking forward to the processed view.

[kinetic (Steve)]

becoming a real challenge now from LP Adelaide skies.

Jan 16 evening set: 30sec x 100 frame set, QHY8/lens

Steve