Here's the stretched - inverted image Alan. I actually have a set of subs 30 minutes prior to this image but I've been slow to process them. Had a bad night after eating something that gave me indigestion and I'm a bit tired after tossing and turning all night.
Tried 3x3min subs, but shows up my poor alignments and camera foos, need a clean. Good news though I can see the tail.
Lots more 60sec subs to play with, nice cool mild weather here, and I can convince my self that I can see the comet in 7x50 bino's
Tonight I saw the tail for the first time visually. I could only see it by moving the telescope. The tail was quite distinct during the movement in the field of view. It was too difficult to discern any features - it was just a very faint diffuse grey.
The sighting was with a 140mm refractor using a 7mm eyepiece giving 114X. Seeing was 5/5 and transparency very close to 7/7 with the moon having set some time ago. All in all the sky was quite spectacular.
Change in Comet Lovejoy tail structure, 21-22 December 2014
These two images reveal how rapidly the tail structure was evolving during the night of 21-22 December 2014. The first image was built from a stack of 24 frames, each 150 s. Sigma clipping was applied to suppress the stars. The second image was built from a stack of 14 frames, each 150 s. The tail structure is sharper in the second image. Roughly 10 frames was near to the maximum before the tail structure began to blur due to motion. If you toggle between the two images, and use a little imagination, you will discern the movement of structure from right to left.
Image A: 24 frames x 150 s, 23:19 pm 21 December to 00:44 am 22 December 2014
Image B: 14 frames x 150 s, 01:36 am to 02:13 am, 22 December 2014
Was a bit too cloudy last night and I was tired so gave it a miss. But I only have one or two nights left before the big bad moon comes along. Still a lot of cloud about today though so tonight is not looking good.
Don't forget the conjunction with M79 tomorrow night.
Gah, really want to start imaging this! clouds every night for past two weeks in BNE
Yep, dam annoying! I did manage to get one night of viewing Lovejoy several days ago and was astonished that I could see the tail visually with my dob. Admittedly it was faint, but still discernable & distinct against the background. I was a very happy lad :-)
Yep, dam annoying! I did manage to get one night of viewing Lovejoy several days ago and was astonished that I could see the tail visually with my dob. Admittedly it was faint, but still discernable & distinct against the background. I was a very happy lad :-)
hmm, if the clouds disappear anytime soon, ill give the eyepiece a whirl first! Or ill use my essentially 6x105 monocular
the things we do for science 
