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Comet McNaught 2009/R1 (imaged 06/13/10 from 'Upham', NM) |
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Object Information Imaging Details |
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Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) visited the inner solar system for a couple of months in mid 2010. Peak brightness was expected to occur around July 1; however, the comet will not be visible from the Northern Hemisphere after mid/late June. The image spans roughly 2 degrees and the full resolution view includes the open cluster NGC 1245. Visually the tail extended for at least a degree (through a moderately-sized telescope). My friend, Steve Barkes, captured an image showing a tail of several degrees using an 85mm f/1.8 lens. The map shows the position of the comet on 6/13/10 (the morning the image was shot). The image was taken from ASLC's 'Upham' dark sky site on the morning of June 13, 2010. Winds were calm, transparency was good, seeing was fair. The image was selected as the Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 17, 2010! Click here to view the APOD Clicking the above image will bring up a higher resolution image with a larger field of view, an inset showing a negative of the comet, and a mouseover option to see the comet and tail without the background of stars. |
Telescope: |
Celestron NexStar GPS 11 |
Camera: |
Canon T2i (modified) | |
Filter(s): |
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Misc. Optics: |
Hyperstar 3 | |
Exposures: |
45 x 1 minutes @ ISO 1600 | |
Guiding: |
Unguided | |
Processing: |
Images converted to tifs, then hand aligned with CS3. Nine stacks of 5 images each were prepared (centered on comet). Images combined using one stack as in 'lighten' mode and the other 8 stacks as 'darken' layers. This was repeated for all permutations and the stacks were combined (lighten). This isolated the comet/tail with essentially no stars in the background. The resulting comet/tail was enhanced to show more detail, then combined with a single sub to restore the starfield. | |
Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)