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Archive 2015 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2

  
 
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Comet Lovejoy is currently putting on quite the show in the evening sky. Glowing at around mag 4.8 and easily visible to the naked eye away from bright city lights, it is one of the best comets we've seen in the northern hemisphere in a very long time. I've had a run of three clear nights here in Massachusetts and below are some of the images that I've captured. Thanks for lookin'!

Chris

January 8th (tail disconnection event) - Canon 6D & Astro-Physics 130EDF refractor
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-010815-130EDF.jpg

January 9th - Canon 6D & Astro-Physics 130EDF refractor, tracked on the comet.
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-010915-130EDF.jpg

January 10th - SBIG ST-8300M CCD camera, Astrodon G2 Lum filter, Astro-Physics 130EDF refractor, tracked on the comet.
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-011015-130EDF.jpg



Jan 11, 2015 at 09:48 AM
Zeph
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Very cool Chris, love the first 1/8 version, we've had extreme fog here in the Northwest, so thanks for the view.


Jan 11, 2015 at 10:05 AM
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Great shots. Managed to show my wife and daughter yesterday through my dobsonian. Makes me want to get a camera for it as well as a way to track.

Ryan



Jan 11, 2015 at 10:21 AM
JimFox
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Hey Chris,

I am really liking #1 here, that green glow is really cool.

What direction in the sky is the comet? I was out shooting stars the other night but had completely forgotten about the comet.

Jim



Jan 11, 2015 at 11:41 AM
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


JimFox wrote:
Hey Chris,

I am really liking #1 here, that green glow is really cool.

What direction in the sky is the comet? I was out shooting stars the other night but had completely forgotten about the comet.

Jim


Thanks Jim!

Here's a finder chart from Sky & Telescope. Look south around 9pm local time.
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/Lovejoy2-1250px.gif



Jan 11, 2015 at 04:53 PM
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Thanks Ryan & Zeph!

Chris



Jan 11, 2015 at 04:54 PM
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Very cool shots.
With this awesomeness, guess I won't bother posting my shot.

David



Jan 12, 2015 at 03:33 PM
JimFox
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Hey Chris,

Thanks for the info on the comet's path. I was shooting my star shots facing south, so I probably unknowingly captured it. Though I was shooting at 14mm or 16mm for the most part, so if I did capture it, it's probably not large enough to see.

Jim



Jan 12, 2015 at 03:39 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Hopefully when I can get around to it, I'll post mine on the astrotrac thread.
If you can only track the stars, there are limitations difficult to overcome. The comet moves noticeably in the star field even over a few minutes.

David



Jan 12, 2015 at 03:52 PM
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


dgdg wrote:
Very cool shots.
With this awesomeness, guess I won't bother posting my shot.

David


Thanks David!
Looking forward to seeing your shots! I'd keep your exposures to under 3min to minimize blurring from the motion of the comet.

Chris



Jan 13, 2015 at 01:36 PM
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


cool


Jan 17, 2015 at 06:34 AM
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Here's my best image of Comet Lovejoy to date imo. Captured last night, January 16th. 10 x 30sec @ ISO3200, Astro-Physics 130EDF refractor and Canon EOS 6D. The total exposure was kept short to minimize blurring in the ion tail streamers.

David - this was stacked with DeepSkyStacker and I didn't get those weird artifacts.

http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-011615-130EDF.jpg





Jan 17, 2015 at 09:12 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Great shot. My light pollution kills the tail. I even cranked my exposure peak to 50% for a few frames just to be sure.

Any particular settings you use in DSS? I can only avoid that crunchy thing with star stacking only, no edits



Jan 17, 2015 at 09:52 PM
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


David - I converted the RAW files into 16bit tiffs in ACR. I then took those tiffs into DSS and used the comet mode to stack the files. Are you adjusting the Levels/histogram in DSS before saving?


Jan 19, 2015 at 04:23 PM
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Two new images of Lovejoy taken on Jan 19th.

Chris

Widefield - 6D w/70-200 2.8L
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-M45.jpg

Closeup - Astro-Physics 130EDF w/Canon 6D
http://www.abmedia.com/astro/current/lovejoy-011915-130EDF.jpg



Jan 23, 2015 at 11:01 AM
dgdg
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2


Finally got to processing my wide field shot.
The light pollution obscures much of the tail detail, but it was still great fun witnessing the event on multiple nights.
I went out with Pablo (bysteller) on this evening and set up my Vixen Polarie for him on his tripod. Great guy.

Chris, I discovered that in some situations, Deep Sky Stacker does not like blown highlights in the central portion of stars. That is where I would get a dark splotch in the final stacked image. Doesn't seem to be an issue just tracking stars, but in comet (still stars and comet) mode reducing the highlights and white point a bit in the TIFFs prior to stacking eliminated this problem.

David

http://davidsphotography.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v158/p265118593-5.jpg



Jan 25, 2015 at 08:14 PM





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