Hi, I finally thought I was going to get a break last night but it was still not to be! Looked like a clear slot was coming in and it would be a chance to catch four comets in one night!
When the clouds broke I found Comet 2013R1 (Lovejoy) quite easily, even though the haze.
I didn't want to set up the scope as there was still a chance of heavy showers so just used the DSLR on the portable mount.
Got a decent enough sequence of the comet (see attached) but I noticed a slight indentation or split towards the right hand side on the coma. The image scale is very small (The scope would have been better!) so I'm not sure if it's reall or a processing artifact, maybe some background stars or just poor tracking. Looking at the red haloes the focussing could have been better. Mind you it's a 40+year old lens.
Anyway it was nice to see it for real in the binoculars.
I struggled on hoping to catch ISON, Encke and Linear but bang on cue around 04.15 the clouds rolled back in. Just got a quick glance at ISON before it was swallowed up. Not a hope of the other two.
Great to see that there's at least one person in the UK who actually takes his own comet photos.
It's much more hard work carting the gear outside and getting a series of pics than just tagging your name onto a pic taken by a 'scope in New Mexico or Oz. BAA and TA are now full of the latter!
Had another look at the comet last Sunday morning. Certainly looks a bit bigger and brighter. I used my 102mm refractor and the dslr to take this shot.
Put this one into grey scale and stretched to try and bring out the ion tail, unfortunately it completely washes out the coma.
I've read some reports of visual sighting of the tail but I couldn't see anything from my location. It did look distinctly greenish in the scope though.
BillW: We've been given a new look. What do you think?
Jan 30, 2014 20:15:21 GMT
leolion: Looks great & uncluttered
Feb 1, 2014 19:04:21 GMT
BillW: 21.06 UT. Aurora visible from North Ayrshire. Not much structure but bright geen glow in north.
Feb 27, 2014 21:07:49 GMT
BillW: Anyone got clear skies for the Quadrantids? Not bad here, but activity seems to be low just now.
Jan 3, 2015 23:40:01 GMT
BillW: Great shot! This year is has really taken off. I only hope there are still good displays when I get my summer holidays in July... ;-)
Jun 27, 2018 8:36:07 GMT
BillW: Looking forward to seeing all of my meteor observing friends at the next IMC in Germany.
Jun 1, 2019 14:57:08 GMT
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