Comet 103P Hartley 2 - Oct 25th

[NickH]

Imaged with a fullish Moon and thin cloud, real challenge, but the combination of narrowband filters (OIII in particular) and CLS filter helped

30 x 30s per channel

Atik 4000CCD

[George]

That tails forming nicely now Nick.

[brianb]

Excellent work Nick! Have to make the best of the moonlight, if you're lucky enough to get holes in the cloud, as the comet will be fading, shrinking and running away south by the time the moon gets out of the way ....

[barkis]

That is a very pretty sight.

Tail is quite extended, and pinkish?

Is the Insert an enlarged inverted crop of the same Image Nick?

Guided on the comet for an extended exposure though.

Ron.

[NickH]

Tail is a kind of dusty red, but the narrowband filters are rendering it probably a bit more pink. and it is very extended, not showing all of it for sure

The insert is inverted just the sum combined component. The way the main image is constructed is using a series of layers with some of the starfield aligned, and some aligned on the comet nucleus. Median/DS and sum combine modes in Maxim DL. Then blended in Photoshop. Takes about 1-2 hours to do the whole lot, between combining/calibration etc and the final CS5 generated result

All of it is 30s exposures (lots of them) guiding on the comet was the plan, but the Moon killed it last night and it's also a problem as the comet is moving so quickly across stars, sometimes PHD is "jumping" to a star and locking on that and not the comet as it crosses it..

[barkis]

Tail is a kind of dusty red, but the narrowband filters are rendering it probably a bit more pink. and it is very extended, not showing all of it for sure

The insert is inverted just the sum combined component. The way the main image is constructed is using a series of layers with some of the starfield aligned, and some aligned on the comet nucleus. Median/DS and sum combine modes in Maxim DL. Then blended in Photoshop. Takes about 1-2 hours to do the whole lot, between combining/calibration etc and the final CS5 generated result

All of it is 30s exposures (lots of them) guiding on the comet was the plan, but the Moon killed it last night and it's also a problem as the comet is moving so quickly across stars, sometimes PHD is "jumping" to a star and locking on that and not the comet as it crosses it..

Ta very much.

[teh_orph]

What kind of magnitude do you think it is in the sky at the moment - originally I heard it was to be naked eye: is this still likely to be the case?

PS loving your progression of images over the weeks. Will there be some kinda jumbo animation combining all your images?

[NickH]

Mag 5.6 is the current estimate, (integrated) so visible in a dark sky location, but not with this Moon at the mo..

Working on a biggish idea for a final image, if I can get ESO permission to use a nice backdrop :-)