I concentrated on the head of the comet at 160mm F/L.
I went for ISO 6400, so the images are noisy, but I'm quite happy with the result. There seem to be a central bightening extending from the head of the comet.
The bright star is Alpha Cae.
Camera Canoon 1100D.
Lens 75 to 300 zoom at 160mm F/5 ISO 6200
2 x 120 sec exp plus dark frames
Processed in DSS and Photoshop.
Good work Justin! My skies cleared and I decided to try a close up too, at 200mm - but halfway through the first sub cloud formed and that was it. Not a trace, too short apart from the browny cloud influence. Great to see your image to show me what I was looking for in vain.
This is 9x3 minute exposures with 24mm lens at F2 and 5D MK ll at ISO 6400. Still having hit and miss issues with DSS, so this is a crop of the full FOV. Will try this again later when I have time. http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/83790b67.jpg
This is a stack of 4x5 minute exposures with 70-200 lens at 70mm F2.8 and 5D MK ll at ISO 6400. Cropped from the full FOV.
I also took some exposures with the 24mm lens, but the contrast of the comet is very hard to pick out from the sky background. This 70mm image shows the comet better.
This is a stack of 4x5 minute exposures with 70-200 lens at 70mm F2.8 and 5D MK ll at ISO 6400. Cropped from the full FOV.
I also took some exposures with the 24mm lens, but the contrast of the comet is very hard to pick out from the sky background. This 70mm image shows the comet better.
Had cloud here to the east, and thought it may be over your area Justin. Don't think I will bother with the 24mm lens anymore on this comet as it doesn't give resolution at such depth to help bring out the faint comet. Just need to nail its position better so I can try the zoom lens at higher setting.
took this image last night 29-1-12, it is 5x2.5 minute exposures with 50mm lens at F2 and 5D at ISO 6400. Unfortunately DSS doesn't want to add the Flat frames into the mix without stuffing up the stacking process.
Any tips on adding flat frames into DSS and getting good results would be appreciated.
Good work to capture that.
I tried at 200mm on Sunday 29th, nothing on 6 images.
Must say, seeing wasn't the best very high humidity and the sky was hazy.
Tried for the "umpdeenth" time to follow how to reduce vignetting with R.Scott Ireland's book Photoshop astronomy, and acturally got it done. It isn't hard to follow, just that dure to my lack of know-how I had trouble following the procedure. Still had some vignetting around the perimeter, so cropped that out. http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/090cc349.jpg
Really, REALLY pushing it now. Still, sky cleared somewhat last night (30 Jan) after about an hour of cloud making right over the area I wanted to image and I did get two fields at 55mm. With a combination of Photoshop and averted imagination traces of the tail are vaguely detectable to perhaps as much as 26 degrees. A section is missing, lost in the horrendous vignetting at the junction of the frames (no flats). Here's the first field: http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...2invtextsm.jpg
Top effort there Rob to get the tail recorded for such a length. I cannot remember seeing a comet this faint with a tail as long as this. Does anyone know if this is a first?
Farewell Lovejoy, that's it for me, definitely. Last shot, thanks for the memories!
Got this at a bit after 1am this morning, 1 Feb. 8 degrees or so of the tail was all I could detect after comprehensively mangling my image. For this field, the bright stars were blown out by haze in two of the three 4-min subs I took. I imaged further out in better sky conditions afterwards but 4 x 4 min subs revealed no discernable trace of the extension of the tail, unlike the 2 x 4 min subs taken the previous night (with dew forming on lens!), go figure. http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...an2012text.jpg
Moon is setting too late for me from now on, but I reckon it's now past the range of my gear anyway. What a ride!! Look forward to what others can get though, still a tiny bit of life left in the comet before the Moon swamps it!
It's been a remakable journey with comet Lovejoy!
I would have never believed that it could be followed so far. It certainly allowed me to push my setup, and I'm really pleased with the results.
Good effort Rob, the comet is really getting faint now. I still hold hopes to get it again when the cloud leaves my skies. I just hope that the comet is still high enough for me to get from within the observatory by the time the Moon sets at around 1:30 tomorrow morning.
Thanks Justin, have enjoyed your input of images also.
It's been a remakable journey with comet Lovejoy!
I would have never believed that it could be followed so far. It certainly allowed me to push my setup, and I'm really pleased with the results.
Thanks.
Justin.
I'll echo that Justin! It's been a 'joy' to follow the comet's progress and eagerly await the postings by yourself, Lester and others. Well done guys! And maybe, just maybe, Lovejoy has a little life left in it yet.
Still some steam left in the "old girl". This image was made last night (Feb 4.5 UT) in bright moonlight and is 61 x 35 second exposures with hyperstar C8 and QHY9. The image is 1.5 degrees high to give some aspect to scale. Stacking was performed in Astrometrica.
I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to track it, but maybe as long as March.
That is a good image with the Moon so bright Terry. Any filters used to help reduce Moon light? Also what are the zig zaggy little chaps in your image?
No filters, just lots of gradient correction required. The ziggy zaggies are hotpixels that weren't corrected from the dark frame (my dark frame is getting a bit old) and the pattern is from periodic error in my drive.
Astrometrica has a nice function that allows it stack based on the motion of a minor planet, which is what I did here.
My skies cleared and I decided to try a close up too, at 200mm - but halfway through the first sub cloud formed and that was it. Not a trace, too short apart from the browny cloud influence. 
Great to see your image to show me what I was looking for in vain. 
