Comet Lulin - 1

[RobertM]

Taken last night, gave up with local skies so this was taken from just the other side of Toys hill.  A single 90s iso 800 image with a Canon 450d and 200mm lens of comet Lulin passing Regulus.  Not sone much of this DSLR stuff so the processing may look a bit naff to those seasoned DLR'ers.  Was going to take quite a few but it was pub closing time and kept having to abort images due to headlights.  Have a couple more but DSS is having trouble with those so this is processed in Maxim and finished off in PS3.



Original (binned 2x2) : http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3303/3316609912_2822f44478_o.jpg

[Mac]

very nice,
expecially with the weather.

[MarkS]

Well done Robert. 
That's a really pleasing conjunction of Regulus and Lulin you've captured there!

I can tell from the haze around Regulus that this was not an ideal night.  But you've also captured Leo I -the dwarf spheroidal galaxy next to Regulus.

Were you using the astrotrac for tracking?

Mark

[Fay]

Robert, I have been waiting for you or Mark to post a Lulin, Great!!!!

[Mike]

Well done. Nice image.

[RobertM]

This is part 2, taken after the AGM at around 11pm.  Same equipment as above from my back garden, and yes Mark using an Astrotrac mount (brilliant product for this type of thing).  It shows the movement of the comet over a 35 minute period.  16 x 60s, would have liked more and longer exposures but the weather wasn't playing ball.



Full (binned 2x2) : http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3587/3316394973_1fe7f4023b_o.jpg

If it helps, this image was taken at approx 5.9 arcsec/pixel, I reckon I could get away with 3 minutes tracked at Siderial rate before detecting comet movement.

TFL
Robert

[MarkS]

I took a quick look last night.

At 600mm focal length it was moving 5 pixels per minute!

Mark

[JohnP]

Excellent Robert - great that someone in the society managed to capture it. I didn't know you had an Astrotrac - John

[Tony G]

Excellent images Robert, especially the 1st with Regulus.

Tony G

[Ian]

Looking excellent Robert

I had a look with bins last night and I thought it was quite a bit dimmer than Thursday night. I had trouble finding it last night, but had none after coming out of the pub...