Same Comet, same conditions, same tree, same faff, different night:
Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4).
Subs: 25 light @ 30s, darks, bias frames, ISO1600.
1000D on the 6" R-C, unguided.
The main difference is that this time there's a time-lapse movie. I created it from 100 frames, each representing 30 seconds of exposure and 5 seconds of "gap", so that's nigh on an hour crammed into this 10-second clip:
See? This is what happens when you decide to keep your winter beard - three consecutive days of almost uninterrupted dawn-to-dusk sunshine.
🙄
Here's a stitched pic from yesterday morning, mouseover for labels, click it to see the bigger version:
Active Regions 1704, 1707, 1708, 1710, 1711, 1713 & 1714 (02/04/2013).
DMK mono camera @ prime focus on C80ED-R, Baader Solar Film filter.
I grabbed some more shots of the main sunspot groups at a higher magnification, it'll take me a while to process the stuff so I'll put the results in a "Part 2" post as and when.
Managed a few binocular glimpses of Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) between the clouds last night, then I got to wondering if it was sufficiently north and high for me to be able to train the obsy-based telescope on it.
After a bit of a faff moving the roof a good foot further along than usual, and then removing the screen that keeps out the glare from the retirement-home up the road, the only obstruction was the neighbour's Japanese Maple. I couldn't cut it down and it wouldn't bend out of the way so I decided to just pretend it wasn't there and take the shots through it anyway. After all, if this hobby was easy, everybody would be doing it!
Despite the tree, the light-pollution haze near the horizon, the comet's low altitude, the glare from several 500W halogen burglar-helpers and a mere 15-minute window of opportunity when the comet was visible between houses, the result's not so bad after all:
Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4).
Subs: 6 light @ 60s, darks, no bias frames, ISO800.
1000D on the 6" R-C, unguided.
As promised, some more pics from Wednesday evening's Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) observing session:
Moon and Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4), 13th March 2013.
Nikon D50, 35mm prime lens, 0.8s @ f/2, ISO 200, static tripod.
Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4), 13th March 2013.
Nikon D50, 70-300 lens @ 300mm, 5s @ f/7.1, ISO 800, static tripod.
Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4), 13th March 2013.
Nikon D50, 70-300 lens @ 300mm, 10s @ f/7.1, ISO 800, static tripod.
Moon with Earthshine, 13th March 2013.
Nikon D50, 70-300 lens @ 300mm, 1s @ f/7.1, ISO 800, static tripod.
We're hoping to bag some more pics sometime during the next few evenings if the weather decides to play along.
I managed to get away for a couple of hours around sundown last night, it was the first clear(ish) evening for a while and the first chance we'd had to have a look at Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4). Finding it was an interesting experience - too soon after sunset and the skies were still too light, and later when the skies had darkened the comet was so close to the horizon that it stood a chance of being lost in the murk of haze, cloud and light-pollution.
Persistence was the key. Eventually the bank of low snow-cloud moved away and revealed the target. It's not visible with the naked-eye yet during these conditions but it's an impressive sight through 10x50 binoculars. The 70-300 lens on the D50 picked it out quite easily.
Here's one of many pics from the evening, I'll post a few more later:
Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4).
Nikon D50, 70-300 lens @ 300mm, 5s @ f/7.1, ISO 800, static tripod.
It wasn't forecast to be the clearest of nights but I'd got the OK to go out and I wasn't going to waste the chance. The skies were fairly clear for the first hour but after that I was battling the orange haze of a low thin mist illuminated by waste light from streetlights. Despite that, I managed to see a fair few things and snap some more Messiers:
M40 (centre-left), a pair of stars in the constellation Ursa Major.
Subs: 12 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO800.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.
M48 (aka NGC 2548), an open cluster in the constellation Hydra.
Subs: 16 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO800.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.
M53 (aka NGC 5024), a globular cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Subs: 22 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO800.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.
