Reprocess of yesterday's Lovejoy data: first bash with DSS

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have been playing around with DSS for the first time, and once I got the data sorted out, I got some clear improvements on last night's processing effort. Adding flats helped a bit, and DSS does calibration much better (and directly out of the box with RAW files) than Registax manages. Comet stacking worked, star stacking worked, but star and comet stacking did not stack the comet properly. Might be doing something wrong, but there may be an issue with the data or DSS itself. Might write a method to combine star stacked and comet stacked images into a single image myself. Two versions of the best comet stack attached: one just from DSS, the second tweaked with GIMP. The latter shows a bit more detail, but also more noise. Clearly need more data

[Davey-T]

Nice image Michael, is that a hint of a tail ?

Dave

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks Dave. Absolutely a hint of a tail (in the same orientation I spotted through the EP )

[Blazar]

Wow. good work Michael. I want to have a go at this tomorrow evening if possible. What scope were you using? was thinking of throwing the WO71 on the AVX and try guiding off of the comet ...though never tried guiding yet!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Wow. good work Michael. I want to have a go at this tomorrow evening if possible. What scope were you using? was thinking of throwing the WO71 on the AVX and try guiding off of the comet ...though never tried guiding yet!

I used the APM 80mm F/6 with 0.8x reducer on the GP mount. No guiding and only ten 40s subs

[Pete Presland]

Very good image especially for such short exposures. there is a stack on comet/stars option in DSS.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very good image especially for such short exposures. there is a stack on comet/stars option in DSS.

I did try that but the results were poor for the comet (stars were OK, and comet showed some improvement over tracking on stars alone). I have worked out a procedure which would let me combine a "track on comet" with a "track on stars" image in a way which should be better.