Lovejoy - variations on a theme

[steppenwolf]

I don't normally take 'solar system' images but Comet Lovejoy is such a beautiful sight that I couldn't resist experimenting .....

32 x 240 second guiding on comet

32 x 240 second guiding on comet - suppressed stars

single 240 second guiding on comet

[Twisted Lip]

Great shots Steve, some of the best lovejoy I've seen.

Will

[ollypenrice]

Very fine indeed. Guiding on the comet gives delicious detail in the tail. I've never tried that.

Olly

[sharkmelley]

Very nice.  Good detail in the tail there.

Mark

[starman1969]

That is very well done indeed.

[Davey-T]

Very nice Lovejoy, have you got a wider field setup ? as the tail appears to be quite long now in some images.

Dave

[steppenwolf]

Very nice Lovejoy, have you got a wider field setup ? as the tail appears to be quite long now in some images.

I took some comet images earlier last week using a 200mm focal length camera lens but stupidly hadn't realised how long the tail was so I had centred the comet in the FOV - this meant that I didn't get any more of the tail - DOH! For these images I used a focal length of 509mm but framed the image to capture the tail better. However the above images are slightly cropped for aesthetic reasons (hence they don't natch up pixel for pixel ) but the following is a non-cropped version which does show a little more of the tail:-

[Psychobilly]

Very effective set of images Steve

The subs from when your guiding on the comet will make a very effective movie loop...  The starfield will drift across the behind the stationary comet...

I have 50x120s at the moment with the  200/2.8L on the full frame 5D III and will stay on it until I am about to fall asleep... Probably got a handful of subs with cloud on them...

I just hope DSS Plays nice it's been a pig with the 5DIII subs especially if I include calibration frames... Hopefully comet stacking will work as well with the tracked images it wouldn't even with 5s static ones the other day it wouldn't recognise the comet

Peter...

[michael23]

Very nice, I like the suppressed stars version.

[ghostdance]

Lovely tryptich. I have no favourite: they look beautiful together.

[steppenwolf]

The subs from when your guiding on the comet will make a very effective movie loop...

I should try that, Peter, thanks for the suggestion.

I have 50x120s at the moment with the  200/2.8L on the full frame 5D III and will stay on it until I am about to fall asleep...

I hope you got the framing right! The Canon 200/2.8L images showed some promise so I am looking forward to seeing your results especially as mine were also taken using 120 second exposures - I stopped mine down to F4 using a 72 to 52mm stepdown ring.

Hopefully comet stackign will work as well with the tracked images it wouldn't even with 5s static ones the other day it wouldn't recognise the comet

I used MaxIm DL to stack mine but I had to chose 'Manual 1 Star' which meant manually selecting the core of the comet in each subframe as it was automatically presented on screen - laborious but worth it!

Thank you for your comments and suggestions folks.

[Psychobilly]

I'm shooting 120s @  f3.5  ISO800  on the full frame 5DIII and have the 77mm IDAS  on the front focused using APT on a 1/3rds point .... 

This is my first "serious" attempt at an image for a long time... I just hope I can get the data processed or it may well be my last !!!

Peter...

[steppenwolf]

That is going to be a lovely wide field of view, Peter, I'd forgotten the full frame part!

[kenny k]

Cracking shots of Lovejoy Steve, the best i've seen id say.

Well done.

Kenny.

[Pete Presland]

The single sub certainly is excellent. Lovejoy is easily visible in my finder/guider so guiding on it is a good option.

[ejwwest]

Excellent shots.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Beyond_Vision]

This is certainly wetting my appetite to get back out there, an excellent set of images Steve

Regards