C/2013 S1 ISON - Tuesday 19th Nov 5.30am-6.08am

[LDUNN1]

My first attempt at comet astrophotography.
 

FSQ106 (unguided), 460EXmono, 10xL 60s 1x1, 10xeach RGB 30s 2x2.

Stacked in DSS in two ways - 1) aligning/stacking on starfield, 2) aligning/stacking on comet.

Rest of processing in PS.

Narrowband star removal technique using PS 'Dust & Scratches' tool applied to trailed stars in Comet shots. Comet shots heavily stretched to bring out the tail, but also brought out noise, so heavy denoise & then sharpened (not great I know!).

Starfield not stretched much, so only really the blurred comet core to remove - masked out.Colourised the RGB layers

colourised the various RGB layers & set layer blend to 'colour'. Set L layers  blend mode to 'Luminance'

Superimposed the Comet with the Starfield.







 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice shot, despite your own criticism.

[ejwwest]

Excellent. Looked too low down for me from Chandlers Ford with houses and trees in the way and then dawn light. Managed to get some shots of Lovejoy instead. Am still a novice on techniques for enhancing the images!

[LDUNN1]

Many thanks to both of you.
When you work on something closely, all you see are the faults! ;-) .......but this is the best I can currently do, especially with the conditions on the target on Tuesday morning. It remains a good practice run though for later in the year when ISON returns! 
 

[sharkmelley]

You did really well with that - especially considering how low it was in the sky.

Beautiful tail!

Mark

[LDUNN1]

Thanks Mark. Yes, I agree that  I have to take into consideration the conditions & have to be satisfied with what I've ended up with. Would have been nice to not have had to stretch & otherwise push the data so much though & end up with a 'less stressed' image.

Thanks for posting.

[melsky]

Superb image, I was out on Tuesday morning shoting with a DSLR and got nothing as good as this.

Mel

[LDUNN1]

Thanks Mel, I also had a DSLR on the go too Tuesday morning but don't think I got anything that great/useable.

Chuffed to bits currently though, the Beeb have been in touch & are using my image on the BBC2 Horizon website about the program on ISON Saturday night, I guess there might be a chance for it to be on the program too maybe? This is a first for me so am a bit excited by it all.

 

[LDUNN1]

even more chuffed now - the BBC used my image on the Sky at Night TV program aired on Sunday night.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Congratulations - quite a result for your first attempts at a comet. 

[sologuitarist61]

Tremendous image!

[LDUNN1]

many thx Knight & Richard - its been special for me this one, first time getting published/used like this......