Comet Tuttle Images

Comet 8P Tuttle
On 12/07/07

Comet Tuttle making a close approach to a small planetary nebula on 12/7/07. Notice how the comet is trailed because it was moving with respect to the stars while each short exposure was taken.

8P Tuttle. Taken with a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6 (480mm), IDAS-LPS filter. Guided with a Meade DSI Pro and 5.5" F/3.8 Schmidt-Newtonian. Camera is a Hutech Type 1 modified Canon 350 XT. Exposure was 15x90 second sub-images at 1600 ISO. Processed and stacked in IRIS with dark, flat and bias calibration. Photoshop, RC-Astro's Gradient XTerminator and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools for post processing. Neat Image for noise reduction.

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Comet 8P Tuttle
On 12/09/07

An image of Comet Tuttle made while tracking on the stars but aligned on the comet during processing.

8P Tuttle. Taken with a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6 (480mm), IDAS-LPS filter. Guided with a Meade DSI Pro and 5.5" F/3.8 Schmidt-Newtonian. Camera is a Hutech Type 1 modified Canon 350 XT. Exposure was 41x90 second sub-images at 1600 ISO. Processed and stacked in IRIS with dark, flat and bias calibration. Photoshop, RC-Astro's Gradient XTerminator and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools for post processing. Neat Image for noise reduction.

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Comet 8P Tuttle
On 12/12/07

Comet Tuttle image generated with the "StarFreeze" stacking method.

8P Tuttle. Taken with a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6 (480mm), IDAS-LPS filter. Guided with a Meade DSI Pro and 5.5" F/3.8 Schmidt-Newtonian. Camera is a Hutech Type 1 modified Canon 350 XT. Exposure was 10x60 second sub-images at 1600 ISO. Processed and stacked in IRIS with dark, flat and bias calibration. Photoshop, RC-Astro's Gradient XTerminator and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools for post processing. Neat Image for noise reduction.

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Comet 8P Tuttle
On 12/15/07

An image of Comet Tuttle made while tracking on the stars but aligned on the comet during processing.

8P Tuttle. Taken with a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6 (480mm), IDAS-LPS filter. Guided with a Meade DSI Pro and 5.5" F/3.8 Schmidt-Newtonian. Camera is a Hutech Type 1 modified Canon 350 XT. Exposure was 25x120 second sub-images at 1600 ISO. Processed and stacked in IRIS with dark, flat and bias calibration. Photoshop, RC-Astro's Gradient XTerminator and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools for post processing. Neat Image for noise reduction.

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Comet Tuttle and Galaxy M33 Encounter
On 12/30/07

Comet Tuttle image generated with the "StarFreeze" stacking method. This involves taking many short exposure images of the comet while the telescope mount tracks the stars, but the comet will be moving and will be in a slightly different position for each shot. When the images are combined, they can be aligned on the comet and that will produce a still image of the comet but the stars will be trailed. If aligned on the stars, the comet will be trailed (see example here). To get an image of a close encounter between a moving comet and an object such as M33, several stackings of the same data will need to be done and recombined to produce a "still" image.

Galaxy M33 and 8P Tuttle. Taken with a Televue TV-85 at F/5.6 (480mm), IDAS-LPS filter. Guided with a Meade DSI Pro and 5.5" F/3.8 Schmidt-Newtonian. Camera is a Hutech Type 1 modified Canon 350 XT. Exposure was 81x60 second sub-images at 1600 ISO. Processed and stacked in IRIS with dark, flat and bias calibration. Photoshop, RC-Astro's Gradient XTerminator and Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools for post processing. Neat Image for noise reduction. The full resolution image is here.