Comet Neowise - Revealing the Tails

[MarkS]

I went back to Reculver, Kent, UK on Sunday night (because it has a good view north!) and shot this data at around 00:40GMT i.e. the morning of Monday 13 July. Canon 100mm lens at f/4 on a Nikon Z6. This is a stack of 25 x 20sec at ISO 800, stacked on the comet head.

The image shows both the original stack and then an attempt at background subtraction (PixInsight DBE) to reveal the tails with an additional data stretch. Unfortunately it also revealed layers of distant cloud that were not obvious at the time, so it won't win any prizes.



A 100mm lens on the Nikon Z6 should have a field of view of 20 degrees. So the dust tail appears to extend 10 degrees and the ion tail extends a bit further.

Starting at the weekend I should be able to see the comet from home, without travelling across Kent!

Mark

[Roberto]

Great result Mark!  Some observers from dark sites are reporting seeing the ion tail naked eye.

Roberto

[Carole]

Well done, both for results and effort.

I presume the ion tail needs a darker location to reveal it, I tried stretching my image to see if I could reveal anything, but there was no ion tail to be seen.

Carole

[MarkS]

I presume the ion tail needs a darker location to reveal it, I tried stretching my image to see if I could reveal anything, but there was no ion tail to be seen.

Yes, the ion tail is very faint.  It'll need a dark location.

Mark