A Comet and a Supernova

[Bill S]

Hello

Here are a couple of shots I took early Monday morning.

One is of comet Johnson (C/2015 V2). As usual with StarlightLive but used Photoshop to give a bit more contrast to show the tail better.

 

The other is of the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) showing its supernova (SN 2017eaw) discovered by Patrick Wiggins.

I've rotated my picture (above) by 180 degrees to make it comparable to the one in the Sky and Telescope online article (below):

The full S&T article is here:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/possible-bright-supernova-discovered-in-fireworks-galaxy-ngc-6946/

My pictures all thanks to the Lodestar X2 and StarightLive. Thanks Paul!

[Davey-T]

Nicely done Bill, I'm set up for the third time hoping it stays clear trying to catch these.

Dave

[Martin Meredith]

Great work Bill. I'm inspired to take a look for this comet tonight if the forecast holds out. There are a bunch of other brightish (well, EAA-accessible) supernovae out at the moment.

BTW I've noticed the same kind of diagonal banding (only when the contrast is turned up) on my shots when I use short exposures and don't use darks. Did you take darks? I suspect it is the bias signal that will be eliminated as part of dark subtraction.

Martin

[Bill S]

Thank you for the comments and likes.

Martin - you are right. I did not use darks so that may well explain the banding. Paul gives us these features and then I don't use them. Tut tut.