First Attempt at Comet Catalina. Post Processing tips?

[CosmicOrangutan]

Hi again, 

First off thanks to everyone that contributed to my last topic. You helped me in locating and getting some data of Comet Catalina, much appreciated!

Seeing conditions were not ideal but I managed to get 60 x 1 min exposures at ISO1600 of the comet. Can you let me know what you think of this quick process ive done in Gimp and to show you the drift problem? (I'm aware I really need a Coma Corrector, its on the list  )

The problem i'm having is dealing with the drift of the Comet through the night sky in comparison to background of stars (fascinating to observe as it gives you an idea of how fast she is hurtling through our Solar System). Is there a way to effectively process the data on the comet in DSS by keeping the all the data of the comet together and have the star field separate. Please see pics below to give you an idea of what I mean.

Cheers,

George 

 

[CosmicOrangutan]

Quick Process

[CosmicOrangutan]

 

Heres a copy of the first and final Subs to show the drift against the star field.

[Davey-T]

DSS has a comet aligning mode, bit tedious as you have to click on the comet in every image, have a read of the help file instructions.

Dave

[Pete Presland]

As Dave has said DSS comet mode is what you need to try. It means you have to zoom in on the nucleus and select it on each image. The comet mode works well and will leave your stars as streaks due to stacking on the comet not the stars. This gives a sense of the track of the comet against the background stars in my opinion.

[Owmuchonomy]

As mentioned above, In DSS you can choose to have it align to the Comet or the Star field. You can also ask it to consider both. Personally, I run into issues with the third option. Whilst DSS will attempt to stack so that the comet and star field are considered it generates significant noise in the process. I find I have most success stacking as though it were a normal star field.