Share Your Comet Pictures: Pan-STARRS, Lemmon, ISON

Originally posted by groingrinder
So I am taking it that nobody got pictures of PANNSTARS? Too bad that someone among us was not in a dark sky locality to snag pics.

I did, sorry I forgot about this thread.

I snapped some still pics through the main telescope as well but haven't processed them yet.

reply to post by ngchunter


Awesome! Thanks for contributing.

It's been cloudy on the western horizon every evening here since the 8th but I'm still watching for an opportunity evey night.

What software were you using to keep the scope on the comet?

Originally posted by dainoyfb
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Awesome! Thanks for contributing.

It's been cloudy on the western horizon every evening here since the 8th but I'm still watching for an opportunity evey night.

What software were you using to keep the scope on the comet?

I used SkySafariPro on my phone to pull up the coordinates of Pan-STARRS at the start of the imaging session, but I didn't really need to do anything else to keep it in there after that. If I had to, I could autoguide on the comet using my Atik camera, but it wasn't necessary in this case. I only recorded video of the comet for about 45 minutes or so in total. The sky was much brighter for the first half hour so that limited my maximum exposure time and the comet didn't look nearly as good, so I only used the last 16 minutes for the timelapse. Over that period of time the comet just doesn't move much in the widefield telescope.

Originally posted by ngchunter
I snapped some still pics through the main telescope as well but haven't processed them yet.

Here's a stacked still image I took through the main telescope:
img208.imageshack.us...

reply to post by ngchunter


Great job on all your images. I hope we see more from you in the future.

Originally posted by ngchunter

Originally posted by ngchunter
I snapped some still pics through the main telescope as well but haven't processed them yet.

Here's a stacked still image I took through the main telescope:
img208.imageshack.us...

edit on 16-3-2013 by ngchunter because: (no reason given)

Where are you at if you want just give me co-ordinates I am at around 43 and I cannot seem to get a good image let alone find it! Has it been naked eye visible?

I tried forever last night at sunset!

Bad weather, The moon, I could blame light pollution but you obviously filmed it going toward a city on the horizon...
GRRR I just want one shot at this comet! LOL

reply to post by abeverage


This thread might be of interest to you then.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by abeverage

Originally posted by ngchunter

Originally posted by ngchunter
I snapped some still pics through the main telescope as well but haven't processed them yet.

Here's a stacked still image I took through the main telescope:
img208.imageshack.us...

edit on 16-3-2013 by ngchunter because: (no reason given)

Where are you at if you want just give me co-ordinates I am at around 43 and I cannot seem to get a good image let alone find it! Has it been naked eye visible?

I tried forever last night at sunset!

Bad weather, The moon, I could blame light pollution but you obviously filmed it going toward a city on the horizon...
GRRR I just want one shot at this comet! LOL

I wasn't able to see it by naked eye. The weather here has been routinely bad in the two weeks since I filmed that. The last couple of nights have been nice, but I have not had the time or ability on those nights to get to a location that gives me a clear line of sight to the horizon. The light pollution at the location was rather extreme, but in all fairness the city you see in the video is 3~4 miles away on an island and there really was not much there by naked eye - the 14 second exposure of the camera made a small island town look more like a college town on a Saturday night.

*Forgot to add, you can get the exact coordinates of the comet for any given point in time and for your specific location using this site:

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=C/2012%20S1

Just set your location and the observing time.

This has been a notoriously difficult comet to photo. There has been little more than a sprinkling of images posted online. Weather really hangs on the western horizon in my area and despite getting out to try whenever possible...nada.

I remember Hale-Bopp hanging high in the sky, right in my living room window, larger than life for days. If only I had the imaging gear I have now. Well, hopefully ISON.

I'm posting this on Justyc's behalf who came across it and thought it was fitting for this thread. I watched it and cracked up. Very well done! Thanks Justyc.

Well, the one good night we've had so far and I was out in the middle of nowhere without any of my gear. I took this set of images with my little $100 Canon point and shoot. 30 second exposure and the ISO hacked and maxed. 31 March 2013, 21:35 local time.


My friend took a couple shots with a D700 and they turned out pretty good. I'll post one when if I get their permission.

reply to post by dainoyfb


Here's my latest of comet ISON, just took this last night using a half meter CDK telescope and FLI camera in New Mexico remotely over the internet.
img197.imageshack.us...

Not much to see at this point, as you can see. It's still quite faint so it doesn't really warrant attention from professional observatories until it gets closer or does something interesting.

It's interesting to see early pictures of the great comet ISON while it's still small and faint. It's like watching a baby grow.

This picture of Panstarrs is not mine, but I had to share it!

reply to post by wildespace


Awesome picture, I haven't had much luck with the weather around here the past week. In fact the weather's been on a downward trajectory ever since I shot my video. Oh well, it was nice to at least be able to see it at some point.

Hubble shot some images of ISON about 10 days ago (archive.stsci.edu... ), I went ahead and processed the raw data myself to produce this image:

reply to post by ngchunter


I can see what's generating the interest. It's well developed despite how far out it still is. Thanks for posting!

Took this shot with my own telescope this morning. It's still a very faint comet, somewhere in the magnitude 14 ballpark.

reply to post by ngchunter


Very cool pic! You can see it's tail!

May I ask. what time of day was this taken, from where, and in what part of the sky? Will those perspectives change with time? When ISON is at it's brightest, when and where will be the best viewing perspectives?

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Very cool pic! You can see it's tail!

May I ask. what time of day was this taken, from where, and in what part of the sky? Will those perspectives change with time? When ISON is at it's brightest, when and where will be the best viewing perspectives?

It was taken at about 6am eastern from Florida. It's in the east about 20 degrees above the horizon at the time from my location, in the constellation Cancer. Naturally that changes constantly, even over my short imaging session this morning I notice a slight bit of motion of the comet. The northern hemisphere will be the ideal viewing location, but the initial projections of its brightness appear to have been quite a bit too optimistic - it may only be just barely above the limit of naked eye brightness for much of the brightest part of its apparition. Only time will tell for sure, but I think it may be wise to lower your expectations if you don't want to be disappointed. To put my image into some perspective, none of the stars in that image are anywhere near naked eye brightness. The brightest is about magnitude 9.6. Most people can only see down to about magnitude 6 even from pristine dark skies.

Here's my latest comet ISON image. 15x45 sec exposures stacked in DSS. Shot with an 8" LX200 and Atik Titan-C.