Finally managed to get my first image of Comet Catalina!

[Bagginsies]

Today I am a very happy man 

After a frustrating night a few days ago in which nothing worked for me to get a picture of Catalina, even to the point that when my telescope eventually aligned successfully after 5 attempts the clouds rolled in and when they cleared the telescope had lost alignment! I later figured out it was a short in the power cable!

After fixing it I tried again at 0400hrs this morning. After a successful alignment I used the nearest NGC galaxy to get in the area and found Catalina. A test image of 30 secs showed Catalina directly in the centre of the view. I was that excited I didn't try any focus adjustments....wish I had, but still very happy with my image.

Canon 60D @ 300mm piggy backed on the back of the 6SE (49 x 30sec light, 20 x 40sec light, 31 x dark frames and 20 x bias @ f6.3 iso 1600. Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Photoshop Elements) I am still learning and have only just found out you can stack on the comet in DSS which will be my next mission.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Good shot. Congratulations on that catch.

[hadyn42]

Hello Bagginsies

Well done, your image looks great.

We are hoping to view the comet for the first time during the festive season.

A Happy Christmas to you and yours!

Hadyn and Christina - Isle of Man

[Bagginsies]

Thank you michael and hadyn42, I wish you luck! As you know the weather hasn't been so nice and it was a lucky catch with everything going in my favour. Merry Christmas and A Clear New Year!

[Davey-T]

Good catch, today was the first time I haven't got up early to try to image Catalina so obviously the sky was clear, by the time I woke up so had the Sun 

Dave

[StuartJPP]

110% better than mine, well done

The correlation between clear skies and full moon cannot be underestimated! Clear as anything here tonight and practically a full moon. The last clear night that wasn't full moon was blowing a gale! I fear she sill be gone before I get a chance.

[funkysandman]

nice!  did you use any flats? 

[laudropb]

Nice capture. It was worth the wait and effort.

[Bagginsies]

Keep trying StuartJPP, you get it in the end  My 30sec lights were done just as the moon was going down in the West and as laudropb said "It was worth the wait and effort!"

@funkysandman, no I didn't use any flats. I only use light, dark and bias. The flats seem to be a lot of hassle for me at my level. 

[pyrasanth]

......... The flats seem to be a lot of hassle for me at my level. 

You will move to the next level when you are ready & then you will see what you have missed when you calibrate your images!

[Jepjep]

Cool picture, looks like a pearl going down

[Gazabone]

Beautifully done, thanks for sharing. I tried to find it this morning but the sky started leaking before I succeeded!