This was just me playing around with something while waiting for Comet ISON to rise high enough to begin imaging. It is only 24 minutes of integration and it really needs ten times that much. Another project for another day, I guess. Or, I’ll just keep plugging away at it before shooting the comets and I might get enough data to make this project worth my time.
I tried shooting some sub-images of Comet ISON on Saturday morning, Oct 12th, but the fog and murk near the horizon was too much and the comet was barely registering. So, I switched to Comet Lovejoy, which was much higher in the sky. With the dawn quickly approaching, I went with one minute exposures and managed to get 24 good ones before twilight put a stop to my efforts. Twenty-four subs gives me enough noise reduction to make it worth while.
This is a busy area in the Auriga constellation. M38 is an open cluster at the top of the frame. Beneath that is NGC 1907, another open cluster. To the right side is a faint nebula listed as LBN794 in Cartes du Ciel. At the bottom of the frame another patch of nebula known as IC 417/LBN804.
Edit: I managed to add 40×30 sec @ ISO 6400 sub-images to this and the above image has been updated. Below is the original details and image:
Here’s the obligatory M45 image for the month of October, 2013. I shot this while waiting for other objects to get into position.
Here is the October 2013 version of this photogenic area of the sky. I used a high ISO and lots of sub-images. Noise was low, which was good. Color was more difficult to deal with than a lower ISO stack normally is.
Just before dawn broke on Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 and put a stop to imaging the night sky, Comet Lovejoy cleared the trees in my backyard. I was able to get 20 minutes worth of data on it before the sub-images were too blue from the twilight to use for stacking.
Continue reading Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) on October 9, 2013
It is somewhat unusual to have 3 relatively bright comets all in the morning sky at the same time. This one, I think, is the brightest and the other two, Comet Lovejoy and Comet ISON, are close behind. Anyway, I managed to get data on all three comet in two mornings of imaging. Its a comet hunter’s dream come true!
Here is my first Comet ISON image. It was low in the east in lots of light pollution, but I managed to get enough shots to make a reasonable image. I had to cut down a small tree the afternoon before taking this to get a clear shot.