Lovejoy from Littleport

[rjc404]

Here are my first attempts at C/2014/Q2.

Had to wait for what seems like an age for a combination of clear nights and no gales blowing and for Lovejoy to clear the altitude of the trees to the south of my back garden!

These attemps aren't as good as some overs on here and are done with more modest equipment. No computerized tracking, just using an EOS 700D with a 50-250 zoom lens at 250mm on a motorized EQ3/2 mount.

Anyhow, here they are (click on the images to enlarge):

Test shot as Lovejoy cleared the trees (overexposed a little in my raw editor).

Quick timelapse of test shots.

Overexposed single raw image, trying to get a glimpse of the tail (only 45 seconds at ISO 800 - probably should have gone for a higher ISO).

Handstacked series of 7 45 second images. Had trouble with these in DSS so stacked by hand in Photoshop.

Right back to getting the Toucam, barlow and scope out to have another crack at Jupiter...

[rjc404]

One more widefield from my backgarden. Not as good as some of the others on here but I still enjoyed putting it together.

Shot using a Canon EOS700d with a very cheap 50mm f1.8 lens on it. First time I've used this lens for shooting the sky and think f1.8 might have been a bit too much aperture as it was hard to focus. Will try stopping down a bit next time.

[Pete Presland]

Nice collection!