Three Comets in the Morning Sky with last quarter Moon October 26th, 2013

Uploaded 10/26/13/13

 Today started early. Up at 3am on this Saturday morning to shoot hopefully 3 or 4 comets in the morning sky before sunrise. The last quarter (half) moon made it challenging especially for Comet Lovejoy which was very near both Procyon and the moon. Comet ISON was next, getting higher in the east which allowed more time on getting an image lined up. Comet Encke is tough - only half the aperture was over the wall of the observatory when I shot this one! Exploding comet Linear X1 was too low to get a shot of at this time.
Comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1 12.5" f/5 Newt 10 x 1m L, 6 x 1m RGB = 16 mins total Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960
Comet ISON C/2012 S1 12.5" f/5 Newt 10 x 1m L, 3 x 1m RGB = 13 mins total Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960
Comet Encke 2P/Encke 12.5" f/5 Newt 6 x 1m RGB = 6 mins total very noisy image - twilight ended Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960
Lens: 12.5" f/5 Home bult Newtonian Platform: Astrophysics AP1200 Exposure: See Images Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 2/10, Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 41F Processing Tools: Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2 HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS