Comet Johnson (C2015 V2): The weather gave me a couple of hours between clouds this morning. I got a chance to shoot some subs of Comet Johnson. It actually moves a far distance in...

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

The weather gave me a couple of hours between clouds this morning. I got a chance to shoot some subs of Comet Johnson. It actually moves a far distance in half and hour.
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Comet Aligned, ATIK Color Infinity, Astro-Tech 8 RC, Hutech HEUIB-II filter, 0.6x reducer, Celestron CGEM DX mount, 60x30sec, IP ExcAvg-LR

(Download)

Comet Star Aligned (In-camera), ATIK Color Infinity, Astro-Tech 8 RC, Hutech HEUIB-II filter, 0.6x reducer, Celestron CGEM DX mount, 60x30sec, LR

(Download)

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Have you tried DSS, they have a function to get the comet and still keep the stars without the trails.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Europa wrote:

Have you tried DSS, they have a function to get the comet and still keep the stars without the trails.

I've used the DSS Comet processing feature. Works well. I could do the same thing in PixInsight but like the "motion" feel of stretched stars and comet...

bwa

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

I like the star trails, but also like the comet with no star trails.

I tried the comet the other night, but I did not get nearly the detail you have here. How dark are your skies? Makes me wonder how much affect my bright skies have on my images.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

bwana wrote:

The weather gave me a couple of hours between clouds this morning. I got a chance to shoot some subs of Comet Johnson. It actually moves a far distance in half and hour.
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Very interesting to do both tracking and non-tracking.
Well done Brian.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Very Nice, Brian.

Now, for your next assignment class, run a series an make a time lapse of your results....
Or I will whack your knuckles with a ruler.

I got some stunning images last night!
Clouds, clouds during sunset, clouds obscuring a few fleeting stars, clouds blurred by dewbermenting, and in the end Dewberobscuring...

Fascinating....

http://rs1378.pbsrc.com/albums/ah92/Valerie_Higgs_Rich/AnimatedWaitAMinuteSmiley.gif~c200

My Quest for today is to make a dew heater for my DSLR...

(Download)

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Europa wrote:

I like the star trails, but also like the comet with no star trails.

I tried the comet the other night, but I did not get nearly the detail you have here. How dark are your skies? Makes me wonder how much affect my bright skies have on my images.

I was able to shoot the 41P comet at the river in April.
But can't even find it here...

I think our light pollution is terrible.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

SonnyE wrote:

I was able to shoot the 41P comet at the river in April.
But can't even find it here...

I think our light pollution is terrible.

Ah, ok...at least it's not just me being stupid.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

bwana wrote:

The weather gave me a couple of hours between clouds this morning. I got a chance to shoot some subs of Comet Johnson. It actually moves a far distance in half and hour.
.

Brian, this is outstanding. How did you go about collecting the images for the 1st image? Did you just capture the FIT files and process them? Or did you save a TIF file after each 30 sec capture with Atik stacking turned off? And when you save TIF files, do you save the processed file or the unprocessed file?

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Europa wrote:

Ah, ok...at least it's not just me being stupid.

No, not at all.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

CraigFair wrote:

Very interesting to do both tracking and non-tracking.
Well done Brian.
Craig

Both images from the tracked subs. First image was just the subs aligned on the comet, i.e.: single point alignment.

bwa

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

SonnyE wrote:

Very Nice, Brian. br br Now, for your next assign... (show quote)

Very photogenic...

bwa

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

JimH123 wrote:

Brian, this is outstanding. How did you go about collecting the images for the 1st image? Did you just capture the FIT files and process them? Or did you save a TIF file after each 30 sec capture with Atik stacking turned off? And when you save TIF files, do you save the processed file or the unprocessed file?

Both images were created from the tracked subs. First image was the stacked result from captured subs (FIT files) aligned on the comet, i.e.: single point alignment.

The second image was the "in-camera" result aligned and stacked off the Infinity software. Subs and in-camera result captured in the same session.

I save the processed (screen) image after I've made sure the Black and White bars show no clipping and with the Red bar adjusted to taste.

bwa

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Europa wrote:

I like the star trails, but also like the comet with no star trails.

I tried the comet the other night, but I did not get nearly the detail you have here. How dark are your skies? Makes me wonder how much affect my bright skies have on my images.

Dark skies are a benefit for any relatively faint target. The only real light pollution I have is the Moon and Aurora Borealis (when active).

My largest source of light pollution is about 150km away...

An excellent article on processing for light pollution at:
http://www.justinngphoto.com/2014/05/16/how-i-photograph-the-milky-way-from-light-polluted-skies-of-singapore/
This approach can be used from any target under light polluted skies.

Comet Johnson is fairly bright so I suspect a bit of light pollution wouldn't seriously impact imaging it...

bwa

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

bwana wrote:

Dark skies are a benefit for any relatively faint ... (show quote)

I view at a site 150 miles from LA and it is still a major source of light pollution. Haha.
Craig