Friday, February 20, 2009

Comet Lulin

Here is my attempt at Comet Lulin! I stayed out as late as I could before it got too cold. I also have a road trip tomorrow morning so I was stupid to stay out as late as I did. Still, I didn't want to risk not being able to both observe and take a picture of this little comet that is currently gracing our skies.

This was taken through the Austin light dome. The comet was only about 25 degrees above the horizon. Despite this, you can see the brighter nucleus, the coma and a hint of a tail stretching out a short distance to the left in the image.

Image Details:
  • Nikon D40
  • William Optics 66mm Petzval mounted atop an 8" LX200 with Milburn wedge
  • 16 minutes exposure time (16 * 1 minute frames) @ ISO800
  • 4 * 1 minute dark frames
  • 5 * flat frames
  • Stacked in Comet/Star mode in Deep Sky Stacker
Click on image for full size

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful shot Phil! I haven't had a chance to observe Lulin yet due to bad weather. The weekend promises better skies so I'll perhaps get my chance then?

Cheers,

Ewan

Polaris B said...

Very nice, Phil!

Phil said...

Thanks, guys. I am going to try it again Sunday night when I hope to wait for a couple more hours and let it get higher in the sky.

Or, I could be too tired and give it a miss altogether ;-)

Ewan - hope you get to see it! It's really just a fuzzball but neat nonetheless.