The Comet 30th January 2023

[Scooot]

My PC didn’t like processing 411 20 second subs but I’ve finally finished it. Taken with my 2600MC pro and baby Tak at zero gain, processed in Pixinsight. The framing’s not that good because I thought my camera was up the other way and I had intended to allow plenty of room for the comet to move. 🙄

The 2nd Image shows the Comet path to the right and how far it moved over the Sky over the 2.25 hours of imaging. I'm showing the comet before it moved to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Scooot

[orion25]

Wow! That's a great image, Richard. The comet is really moving fast!

Reggie

[Scooot]

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Wow! That's a great image, Richard. The comet is really moving fast!

Reggie

Yes very 😀 19km per second that evening.

Thank you Reggie

[Marvin Jenkins]

I managed to get out last night and got one three minute shot with my dslr and kit lense. 
Going out tonight to image it with the 150 pds, any tips?

Marv

[Scooot]

1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

I managed to get out last night and got one three minute shot with my dslr and kit lense. 
Going out tonight to image it with the 150 pds, any tips?

Marv

Any tips, not sure I’m qualified to give tips but thanks for the compliment. 😀

It’s further away than when I imaged and after looking at its movement on Sky Safari tonight it doesn’t seem to be moving across the sky so much relative to the tracked stars so you can probably get away with longer subs than me, from that regard? 

[Gfamily]

A nice image there Marvin, and interesting to see the comet next to NGC 1647 - a quick look at Wikipedia shows it's a relatively young Open Cluster with many hot bright stars, but that is significantly reddened because it's behind the Taurus Dark Cloud complex.  

For some reason Stellarium calls it the "Pirate Moon Cluster", I don't know why - I sometimes wish we didn't have these arbitrary names for things. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Gfamily

[Scooot]

7 hours ago, Gfamily said:

A nice image there Marvin, and interesting to see the comet next to NGC 1647 - a quick look at Wikipedia shows it's a relatively young Open Cluster with many hot bright stars, but that is significantly reddened because it's behind the Taurus Dark Cloud complex.  

For some reason Stellarium calls it the "Pirate Moon Cluster", I don't know why - I sometimes wish we didn't have these arbitrary names for things. 

You and Marvin have inspired me to have another go, I think I should be able to get the comet & NGC 1647 in the same fov as well.

[Marvin Jenkins]

The open cluster sure is a great companion to ZTF. 
To be honest I didn’t know it was there until I looked at the display on the back of the dslr.

I must try harder at observing. My star chart clearly shows it as something special. Gfamily, thank you for the compliment but #Scooot image is what I would like to produce.

Yeh, I don’t like all those stupid names for clusters. Call me a geek all day long but much prefer NGC classifications.

Marv

[Marvin Jenkins]

1 hour ago, Scooot said:

You and Marvin have inspired me to have another go, I think I should be able to get the comet & NGC 1647 in the same fov as well.

Well I am clouded out here despite the forecast saying clear. 
Please do get out and give it another go. I would love to see the results.

Marv

[Scooot]

15 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Well I am clouded out here despite the forecast saying clear. 
Please do get out and give it another go. I would love to see the results.

Marv

I’m imaging as we speak, got about 50 one minute subs so far. This is a screenshot of the last sub from Asiair.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Scooot

[Marvin Jenkins]

Is that a huge bank of cloud? 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Just realised you have the comet bottom left and the cluster top right!

BRAVO

[Scooot]

1 minute ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Is that a huge bank of cloud? 

No it’s my camera, much more sensitive in the middle. Flats deal with it.

[Marvin Jenkins]

1 minute ago, Scooot said:

No it’s my camera, much more sensitive in the middle. Flats deal with it.

I did wonder about that. You are clearly way ahead of me in AP.

[Scooot]

20 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

I did wonder about that. You are clearly way ahead of me in AP.

I tell a lie, some of that is cloud, a bank of it had started to move over 🙄 clear again now for a bit.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Scooot

[Marvin Jenkins]

Keep us informed and do please post the result.

M

[Scooot]

25 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

I did wonder about that. You are clearly way ahead of me in AP.

Here’s one without the cloud. You can still see the brightness of the camera in the middle.

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

I get it now. I am not going to ask about why it is bright in the middle or this lovely thread about a comet next to a cluster will degenerate into camera statistical madness.

Keep us informed and do please post the result.

M