Comets
Comet 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann on Feb 10
by Vern on Feb.11, 2010, under Astronomy, Comets
Comet 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann on Feb. 10 at 10:50 MST.
Equipment used Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, StellacamII video camera. Alligned, dark subtracted, and aligned with Registax5. Photoshop used to crop, brighten, and create animation. Sky was partly cloudy, transparency was good, not great. Turbulence between 5 and 6/10, no wind, location Louisville.
C/2007 N3 Lulin on Feb. 5, 2009
by Vern on Feb.05, 2009, under Astronomy, Comets
Here is an image of comet Lulin from this morning around 5:20 am. Easy to find visually in the scope and binoculars as it was just 1 degree east of 2.8 magnitude star Zubin in Libra. Noticably brighter than last I viewed it two weeks ago, probably just a bit dimmer than magnitude 6 now. Equipment used: Celestron Nexstar 11, F6.3 focal reducer, Canon Xti, 30 sec exposure, ISO1600. Ten images aligned and stacked with DeepSkyStacker. Nice and clear, no wind, temperature 38F, transparency very good, turbulence about 5/10, taken from light polluted backyard here in Louisville
Comet C2007 N3 (Lulin) on Jan. 19, 2009
by Vern on Jan.19, 2009, under Astronomy, Comets
Here is an image of comet lulin from around 6 am this morning.
Image taken this morning just before 6 am. Sky was mostly clear, transparency was excellent, no wind, temperature was 41 °F, and turbulence about 6/10. Equipment used, Nexstar 11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, Stellacam II at casegrain focus. Thirty images taken for each frame, Stellacam at 9/14 gain, integrate 128 frames. Dark subtracted, flat field adjusted, aligned and stacked with DeepSkyStacker. Brightness enhanced, cropped, and animated with Photoshop Elements.
Comet P/2008 X4 (Christensen) on Jan. 19, 2009
by Vern on Jan.19, 2009, under Astronomy, Comets
Some have reported P2008X4 is brighter than Lulin, that doesn’t appear to be true, at least not through the Stellacam II. As you can see P2008X4 is fairly dim, I’d guess around Mag 11.
Image taken this morning just before 6 am. Sky was mostly clear, transparency was excellent, no wind, temperature was 41 °F, and turbulence about 6/10. Equipment used, Nexstar 11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, Stellacam II at casegrain focus. Thirty images taken for each frame, Stellacam at 9/14 gain, integrate 128 frames. Dark subtracted, flat field adjusted, aligned and stacked with DeepSkyStacker. Brightness enhanced, cropped, and animated with Photoshop Elements.
