C/2020 F3 and its ion tail

[Ken Mitchell]

First attempt and first clear morning after 2 weeks of bad astrophotography weather.

Taken about 2 hrs before sunrise on 07/13/2020

The image still has some startrails from the comet stacking mode in DSS. I've used the comet stacking mode and normal stacking mode and blended both together in Photoshop to get the comet with its starfield rather than startrails. 

Difficult process to do this manually. 

If someone knows a method/software that does comet stacking with its starfield, please let me know. DSS failed me on several occasions  using comet+star stacking method.

Ken

 

Equipment and image detail: 

Nikon d610
TS72 APO + TS72flat 
settings: 432mm, f6, iso400, 40min. Different exposures ranging from 30 sec to 5 sec.

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer
software: 
Stacking: Deepskystacker 4.2.2
Processing: Adobe Photoshop

[John]

That is one of the best images of this comet that I have seen to date.

Thanks very much for posting it Ken

[tooth_dr]

30 minutes ago, Ken Mitchell said:

First attempt and first clear morning after 2 weeks of bad astrophotography weather.

Taken about 2 hrs before sunrise on 07/13/2020

The image still has some startrails from the comet stacking mode in DSS. I've used the comet stacking mode and normal stacking mode and blended both together in Photoshop to get the comet with its starfield rather than startrails. 

Difficult process to do this manually. 

If someone knows a method/software that does comet stacking with its starfield, please let me know. DSS failed me on several occasions  using comet+star stacking method.

Ken

 

Equipment and image detail: 

Nikon d610
TS72 APO + TS72flat 
settings: 432mm, f6, iso400, 40min. Different exposures ranging from 30 sec to 5 sec.

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer
software: 
Stacking: Deepskystacker 4.2.2
Processing: Adobe Photoshop

Very very nice!  How much was cropped off this at 432mm

[ampleamp]

Fabulous! 

[Ken Mitchell]

42 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Very very nice!  How much was cropped off this at 432mm

Thanks!

Very little cropping, I just cropped the stacking artifacts on the edges.

Ken

[Ken Mitchell]

48 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Very very nice!  How much was cropped off this at 432mm

This is a single uncropped 20sec SOOC sub for size reference.

Ken

Edited July 14, 2020 by Ken Mitchell

[Scooot]

That’s a great image Ken, a lovely effect.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Superb, haven't seen a better one.

[Victor Boesen]

Beautiful image! I believe you can remove more of the stars in the comet stack by increasing the iterations and decreasing the Kappa in the stacking settings for light frames. Decreasing the Kappa does however introduce a little more noise.

[Xsubmariner]

Stunning image of an impressive Comet.

 

[Raph-in-the-sky]

Amazing picture! The best picture of the comet I have seen!

 

[x6gas]

Fantastic image Ken - thank for posting...

[geoflewis]

Wow Ken, that is an absolutely sunning image.

[Tenor Viol]

Really good - I need another clear night to get a lot more data as I was only just getting the ion tail.

[tooth_dr]

@Ken Mitchell thanks for letting me know that and for providing the photo.  Given thats a full frame Nikon and 432mm, its a bloody long tail!

Edited July 14, 2020 by tooth_dr

[Captain Scarlet]

Quite incredible image. Very much the best by a distance I've seen. Thanks.

M

[Moonshane]

Superb! It also shows just how much skill is in the processing.

[Pete Presland]

Superbly captured!!!

[Ken Mitchell]

4 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

Beautiful image! I believe you can remove more of the stars in the comet stack by increasing the iterations and decreasing the Kappa in the stacking settings for light frames. Decreasing the Kappa does however introduce a little more noise.

Thanks, I've thought about experimenting with these settings. I'll give it a go 👍

I just want to show you the results of the mixed stacking by DSS. No color and full of banding, no idea why it turned up like this. I believe the blending algorithm in DSS is just bad.

No idea if different stacking settings would give better results.

Ken

[Viv]

That is stunning & best I’ve seen.

 

[sputniksteve]

20 hours ago, Ken Mitchell said:

First attempt and first clear morning after 2 weeks of bad astrophotography weather.

 

 

This is an astonishing image.

[Skipper Billy]

Absolutely outstanding. Well done.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Superb detail in the ion tail in particular.

[andy fearn]

22 hours ago, Ken Mitchell said:

First attempt and first clear morning after 2 weeks of bad astrophotography weather.

Taken about 2 hrs before sunrise on 07/13/2020

The image still has some startrails from the comet stacking mode in DSS. I've used the comet stacking mode and normal stacking mode and blended both together in Photoshop to get the comet with its starfield rather than startrails. 

Difficult process to do this manually. 

If someone knows a method/software that does comet stacking with its starfield, please let me know. DSS failed me on several occasions  using comet+star stacking method.

Ken

 

Equipment and image detail: 

Nikon d610
TS72 APO + TS72flat 
settings: 432mm, f6, iso400, 40min. Different exposures ranging from 30 sec to 5 sec.

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer
software: 
Stacking: Deepskystacker 4.2.2
Processing: Adobe Photoshop

Fantastic image. congratulations. thanks for sharing.

[Xiga]

This is spectacular. Easily the best one I've seen so far. Congrats Ken!