Post Your Comet Pictures

[TrumpetPower!]

Awesome shot. Where was this taken?

Assuming that was directed at me, thanks, and I was at Lipan Point at the Grand Canyon. That's the far edge of the Canyon in the foreground. And, incidentally, that whiter band in the center of the frame that narrows toward the top...that's the zodiacal light -- sunlight reflected off dust in the plane of the ecliptic. That, and a bit of vignetting from the 400 f/2.8 shot wide open...one second at ISO 6,400, if I remember right, and with a 5DIII mounted to it.

I probably have one from earlier in the evening with Uranus and Mars in the frame, and I might have an interesting panorama from Wednesday night at the Snowbowl on the outskirts of Flagstaff. I also did some experiments with shooting Orion and the Big Dipper with the 35L as well as the Orion Nebula with the 400...but, to be honest, I haven't had a chance to review any of that, and all will require non-trivial post-processing. There's the panorama to assemble (including at least a few shots of it to cull from), and then all the exposures of the stars to first cull and then stack....

Cheers,

b&

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Let's see if I can post mine now....

Cheers,

b&

COOL ... very nice!

 

[Don Haines]

Went outside tonight to try some comet pictures, but could not see it from my location. All was not lost though, shot this one of the Orion Nebula.

60D, through telescope, ISO6400, and 30 second exposure

 

[insanitybeard]

A shot of Panstarrs from the UK, noisy and not the sharpest due to being shot at ISO 6400 on a 7D with no post processing, but the comet is plainly visible along with a fuzzy patch of light that is Andromeda up top!

 

[East Wind Photography]

I tried for a shot with Andromeda but was unable to get one. Nice capture.

A shot of Panstarrs from the UK, noisy and not the sharpest due to being shot at ISO 6400 on a 7D with no post processing, but the comet is plainly visible along with a fuzzy patch of light that is Andromeda up top!

 

[insanitybeard]

I tried for a shot with Andromeda but was unable to get one. Nice capture.

A shot of Panstarrs from the UK, noisy and not the sharpest due to being shot at ISO 6400 on a 7D with no post processing, but the comet is plainly visible along with a fuzzy patch of light that is Andromeda up top!

Thanks! Neither Andromeda or Panstarrs are much to look at in the picture but I'm limited with only having a 200mm as my longest lens, plus shooting at such high ISO on the 7D doesn't help detail or noise. Maybe one day I'll get a telescope and an equatorial mount for some serious astrophotography!

P.S- you've captured some nice images also! I'd love a 5D III for better high iso performance. The shooting info from my shot is all contained in the exif, local time was 21.45 I think.

 

[lol]

Canon 600D unmodified. Astronomik CLS-CCD filter (reduces impact of sodium lighting). Canon 135mm f/2L at f/2. ISO3200. 50 shots stacked of 5s exposure each.

I only took a fixed tripod so had to keep exposures short to reduce the impact of star trailing. The fizzy blob above the comet is Andromeda galaxy. The two should be very close in the sky around now, if I get another clear night I'll give it another go.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Very nice and the stacking technique clearly helped. What software do you use to stack these?

Canon 600D unmodified. Astronomik CLS-CCD filter (reduces impact of sodium lighting). Canon 135mm f/2L at f/2. ISO3200. 50 shots stacked of 5s exposure each.

I only took a fixed tripod so had to keep exposures short to reduce the impact of star trailing. The fizzy blob above the comet is Andromeda galaxy. The two should be very close in the sky around now, if I get another clear night I'll give it another go.

 

[lol]

I did most of the processing in PixInsight. I made flats to correct for the vignetting of the 135/2 wide open and calibrated, aligned and stacked in there. Then some cosmetic fixes in PSE afterwards. The 135/2 isn't great for OSC astro imaging. The red focus is quite a bit off compared to green and blue, so you get nasty red halos around bright stars. I'm wondering if the new Zeiss 135/2 APO would be better, but it isn't at a price that means I will find out any time soon. The Canon 135/2 does ok for narrowband imaging though.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Most lenses wide open have a difficult time reproducing point stars and have all of the colors line up. How does the 135 stand up to a click or two stopped down? I would think 2.8 or 3.1 would clean up the red halos....but still you can probably filter out most of the red halos with a good CA filter.

I did most of the processing in PixInsight. I made flats to correct for the vignetting of the 135/2 wide open and calibrated, aligned and stacked in there. Then some cosmetic fixes in PSE afterwards. The 135/2 isn't great for OSC astro imaging. The red focus is quite a bit off compared to green and blue, so you get nasty red halos around bright stars. I'm wondering if the new Zeiss 135/2 APO would be better, but it isn't at a price that means I will find out any time soon. The Canon 135/2 does ok for narrowband imaging though.

 

[lol]

I didn't want to lose any light since I couldn't use longer exposures on this occasion. I can't remember if the 135/2 did improve much stopped down now... and when you say CA filter, do you mean the optical sort or software sort? Effectively I did my own version of a software approach for this image. I haven't looked at exactly how the optical ones work but presume they filter out certain wavelengths so as to reduce the effect. But I'm not sure they're applicable in this scenario anyway.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Optical ones have to be specifically tailored to the lens. I was referring to software. You do lose something in software but the results are better than without. I know you can do stacking in photoshop but never tried this kind of stacking. Rather than play with another SW package I may try tinkering with the capabilities in what I have and see if I can get similar results.

I didn't want to lose any light since I couldn't use longer exposures on this occasion. I can't remember if the 135/2 did improve much stopped down now... and when you say CA filter, do you mean the optical sort or software sort? Effectively I did my own version of a software approach for this image. I haven't looked at exactly how the optical ones work but presume they filter out certain wavelengths so as to reduce the effect. But I'm not sure they're applicable in this scenario anyway.

 

[insanitybeard]

lol, that's a nice shot! Makes mine look a bit feeble in comparison.

 

[CarlTN]

Don Haines and "lol", nice shots! I couldn't find the comet, so just shot the moon.