Neowise - 80ED and Nikon D5300

[Xiga]

Last Saturday night (Jul 18) i made a trip out to a local dark sky site. I had the pleasure of having the company of Adam @tooth_dr who lives nearby, who very kindly agreed to join me and show me the way around (big thanks again Adam!). 

It was a great night. I got to see the comet naked eye, and the length of the tail was truly amazing to behold, once i managed to get away from the laptop screen and finally get some dark adaptation! 

Conditions started out great, then started to deteriorate when a heavy mist came in from nowhere. Because i was using the mount, my setup time wasn't the best, so by the time i actually started capturing, the best of the conditions had already passed. I then noticed that the scope had also already started to dew up. With no portable psu for dew control, i had no option but to just keep capturing and hope for the best. 

In total i captured 66 subs of 30s. Some were very dubious, to say the least. I tried doing several Comet-Only stacks in DSS. Best 8, 16, 25, 49, 60, 66. Apart from the obvious decrease in noise as the stack no. went up, i was surprised just how little difference there was between them all. The dust tail looked no different at all , and the Ion Tail looked better as the sub no. went up. I can only assume that the dewing up of the scope had acted as a collar on the quality of all the subs. So in the end i only ditched the worst 6, and just went with the remaining 60. 

HEQ5-Pro, D5300, 60 x 30s (30 mins), no filter, no guiding. ISO 200. 

Subs calibrated in APP. Comet and Stars stacked separately in DSS. Gradient Reduction and star colour calibration done in APP. Then everything combined in PS. 

Considering everything, i'm 'content' with how it came out in the end. I'll just have to wonder how much better it could have been if i had a means of dew control and the mist hadn't come along when it did. The 80ED also was never the right tool for the job, but it was the best one i had available. Note to self - time to get a proper lens for AP! 😄 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Xiga
grammar

[Red Chilli]

Awesome image

[Sunshine]

One fine closeup you’ve done, very clean and crisp, I’m surprised it was at just 200ISO, fantastic.

[Xiga]

5 hours ago, Red Chilli said:

Awesome image

Thanks Chilli

4 hours ago, Sunshine said:

One fine closeup you’ve done, very clean and crisp, I’m surprised it was at just 200ISO, fantastic.

Thanks Sunshine. I only ever use ISO 200 on the D5300.