Two Comets From the 
Balcony observing location 
November 10, 2013

 
 While Comet Lovejoy is
            riding relatively high in the morning sky, Comet ISON is now
            too low to acquire with our observatory instrument down at ground
            level in the pine forest below. Our balcony on the back of our
            house faces due east, and allows an unobstructed view of the
            eastern sky line. There we set up roughly 18 feet above ground
            level our Zeiss APO astrograph and used a Hutech Canon Xti for
            imaging. While Lovejoy is barely naked eye right now, it is a
            rewarding object in any pair of binoculars. Unfortunately, ISON
            is nothing more than a dim stellar point in the 9 x 63s barely
            8th magnitude, and even in the 80mm Refractor, with a low power
            ocular, the view only reveals an extremely faint tiny head, with
            no visible tail. Fortunately, it does show its appendage in the
            images as seen below.

            
Comet Lovejoy
C/2013 R1
10 mins total integration time

Select an image size for a larger view:

1290 x 960
            



            
Comet Lovejoy
C/2013 R1
Same as above with mapped colors to show
the kink in the tail above the comets head

Select an image size for a larger view:

1290 x 960
            



            
Comet ISON
C/2012 S1
30 minutes total integration time
no hint here of the secondary ion tail
which appears in some shots.

Select an image size for a larger view:

1290 x 960
            


Lens:  Stellarvue / Ziess 80mm f/4.4  Canon XTi
Platform:  Televue GEM
Exposure:  See shots
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  7/10, Transparency 5/10
Outside Temperature:  40F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
HOME   GALAXIES     EMISSION NEBS     REFLECTION NEBS   COMETS  
   GLOBULARS     OPEN CLUST     PLANETARIES     LINKS