Comet 2007 Q3 - Siding Spring - from light-polluted Norfolk

[lukebl]

Hi.

Thought I would have a go at finding Comet Siding Spring last night.

It's currently circumpolar in Bootes/Draco and around mag 11. Unfortunately, in late evening it's low in the North-East, directly towards the nearby town centre from my location so light pollution was terrible. I need my bed, so couldn't wait for it to get higher!

I just couldn't locate it visually in the skyglow with my 200mm Newt so I had a go at imaging it, and was really pleased to see it faintly on the frames. I did some 3 minute exposures at prime focus with an unmodded canon 400D at 800ASA. Noticeable proper motion of the comet even in a short time, so I centred the stacking on the comet itself which results in the star trails. No light frames so there's really bad vignetting and I've stretched everything, so its very grainy, but you can see the tail stretching for at least 20 arc mins. I'd like to use longer exposures, but then the comet would start trailing. Perhaps I could use a faster ASA, but then I guess it would get really grainy.

Really nice, though, to see it looking proper comet-like with a nice tail!

Here's the full-frame image, plus one of the original frames.

[Astroscot2]

Well captured Luke, lts a good looking little comet

[lukebl]

Incidentally, could the fact that the vignetting is not central in the frame indicate that there's something wrong with my collimation or something?

Many thanks,

[Bizibilder]

Nice image Luke (from another Norfolk local!)

[DarkerSky]

Good capture there Luke. I eyeballed Siding Spring in my 16" last Thursday for the first time. It's a toughie as the nucleus is really quite small. Managed to get hints of the tail trailing off behind it.

Siding Spring is on its way out of the solar system now. Perihelion was 7 October last year, so its only going to get fainter

[malp]

Well done, glad you posted this as I was curious about this one!

[Tim]

Ooh thats a bit nice!

It might be your collimation, or maybe just the way the camera is held by the focusser that shows up that vignetting pattern.

Incidentally, using software like Pixinsight LE (free) you could completely remove that vignetting and really make the most of this image.

Cheers

[Herakles]

Very nicely done . Thanks for sharing.

[Jaffa007]

Good image mate!!