My first image of the “exploding” Comet Linear.  Sometime before October 20th, 2013, it is believed that the comet went from below magnitude 14 to magnitude 8.5 in an “explosive” outburst.   This is reminiscent of Comet Holmes back in October of 2007.    In Comet Holmes case, the comet reached naked eye visibility soon after the outburst started.   C/2012 X1 is still a long way away from that level of brightness and is not expected to get anywhere close to naked eye visibility until, if the trend continues,  February of 2014.

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:

Continue reading Comet 2P/Encke on October 24, 2013 →

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.

Continue reading Comet ISON on October 15, 2013 →

 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.

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 →

A new film is out with the best high quality images available of Earth and Space taken by various space probes, professional observatories and amateurs. Maarten Roos, a planetary scientist, is the filmmaker and William Zeitler is the musical soundtrack composer.

Here’s a video excerpt from the DVD:

Below are a couple of stills from their website. The first image is a NASA/JPL image of Comet Hartley 2 from a spacecraft and the one below it, (by yours truly,) is an image from Earth.

Quote from their website:

“Do you look up on a clear night and gaze in wonder on the stars deep into the Universe? They provoke inspiration and awe, a moment of calm, quiet, and peace in our hectic world. Serene Universe combines the awe of the Universe with these healing moments of serenity. It is a unique one hour film experience in which images and music are intimately intertwined. Starting on our beautiful planet, Serene Universe takes you slowly above the Earth, into the Solar System, the Galaxy, Deep Space and finally your inner space.”