While waiting for Comet Linear to rise into position, I shot 24 minutes worth of subs of Comet Encke. ISO 400 did not go as deep as I thought it would. I’ll have to shoot this one again with higher ISO settings or longer exposures. BTW, I have another version with the stars frozen instead of streaked:
I had setup the scope to catch Comet Linear, so ISON was not really my target this time. It was in the trees most of the time. However, there was a short window where it was in the clear and I managed to get 9 minutes of data on it. Not enough for an eye-popping image but enough to document its progress since my last session with it.
In this shot, I rotated the camera to a portrait orientation and managed to fit all three objects in one frame. I was not sure I could get this to work since my scope didn’t have the clearance to have the camera in this position. But, I managed to figure out a way.
Continue reading Comet ISON, Mars and Regulus – October 16, 2013
I cleared more of my eastern sky of blocking tree branches and waited until another clear morning. On Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, I got my chance to image Comet ISON again. It looks larger to me than it was a week ago. I used the same sub exposure time but with more sub-images.
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