Comet Lovejoy Q2
Taken by Gene Moore on January 20, 2015 @ Big Bend National Park Texas
Click photo for larger image
  Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS 6D
Exposure Time: 177/1
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 6400
Date Taken: 2015:01:21 02:08:57
  
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Details:
We had perfect clear skies and for our third night out, no wind (thank goodness). Canon 6D, Canon 400mm F 5.6 lens, 6400 ISO for 177 seconds, single shot.
Photographer's website:
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Comments
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Wonderfull!!
Posted by astromazzo 2015-01-21 11:38:47
Gene

That is a spectacular image of Comet Lovejoy! Especially for only one exposure compared to so many others having to use multiple staked images.

Can you share your processing info?

Thanks for posting this,

Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer, Portland/Sandy Oregon
Posted by markseibold 2015-01-21 15:48:16
Mark, thanks for the nice comments. With respect to my processing all I did was use Photoshop to correct for overexposure and do some noise reduction in Camera RAW. Other than that nothing special. If my image is equal to some that stacked its likely because I went to great pains to seek out a dark and transparent sky. Although Bortle sky charts are becoming (sadly) outdated they are still very useful in getting the best images. Also I recommend using satellite water vapor images to find the most transparent skies. We tried three different locations in Texas before finding one that suited our needs.
Posted by genesouthtx 2015-01-21 16:10:27
Great image of Comet Lovejoy. Big Bend National Park is one of my favorite locations for Astrophotography.
Posted by Kenneth 2015-01-21 18:51:19
Gene

Thanks again so much for the info. I meant to also ask what you use for equatorial tracking. It appears as quite perfect precision tracking.

Our local astronomy club here in Portland was not at our darkest skies annual location as in Central Oregon at the famed yearly Oregon Star Party every August, with some of the darkest skies in the continent. Last night we were at a more local park about 40 miles outside of Portland. We just didnt have the dark skies I had hoped for astro-photography. I am only using a Sony NEX5 APSC sensor digital camera, and Celestron Nexstar 5i Cassegrain for piggyback mounted camera equatorial tracking on the scope. Or a 10 Dobsonian for observation only.

Unfortunately we now have increasing clouds here, then the moonlight invades the darkness for the rest of this month as you know.

Thanks again for posting,

Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer, Portland/Sandy Oregon
Posted by markseibold 2015-01-21 19:31:48
Mark, I have an Orion tripod with an alt/az drive setup I bought to fit the scope. No computer tracking just polar alignment. I was able to get it good enough to go for 3 minutes on the night of the image... probably because I had a level concrete pad to set up on.
Posted by genesouthtx 2015-01-21 22:01:31
Gene...that is an amazing photograph. Congratulations. Your astrophotography images are at least as good as your southern high plains images!

David Blanchard
Posted by dob 2015-01-21 22:31:01
Gene, awesome picture, may I ask what Photoshop you are using for your processing please. Thanks, Bob, Artesia, NM
Posted by StargazrVern 2015-01-22 14:37:28
excellent result compliments
Posted by cinzi54 2015-01-22 16:06:14
Bob, I am using the latest version of Photoshop. I am on the Creative Cloud subscription
Posted by genesouthtx 2015-01-23 11:12:45
 
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