168P/Hergenrother is a periodic comet in the solar system with an orbital period of ~7 years. Discovered in 1998, it returned in 2005 and 2012 for this image sequence. The comet came to perihelion (closest solar approach in its orbit) on 1 October 2012 and was expected to be very faint but due to a fragmentation outburst the comet brightened ~500 times and reached the relatively bright apparent magnitude of 8 (The faintest stars in a dark sky are ~6). DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 100% of 22 Images ISO 800 180 Sec, with comet+stars stacking, 56 DARK @ 120sec, 53 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5 Telescope - Bintel BT200 f/4.0 Newtonian (borrowed from Stephen Boyd) with Televue 2X 2" PowerMate, Hutech LPS-P2 filter, Canon 40D DSLR field 32' x 48', Ambient 13C. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.
Weather and other events meant I had not been able to get to the coast to image this comet, so I took a few snaps from my roof! The coma was easily naked eye, but the tail required binoculars to see visually. Manual focus on bright star via standard viewfinder (not magnifed angle viewfinder). Canon 40D on tripod (no tracking - so trailing) with manual shutter invocation (not remote release). DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 100% of 1 Images ISO 800 10 Sec, F=55mm f/11, 9 DARK @15 sec, 75 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5
Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS in Western Twilight - 7/3/2013 (Processed single image) Weather and other events meant I had not been able to get to the coast to image this comet, so I took a few snaps from my roof! The coma was easily naked eye, but the tail required binoculars to see visually. Manual focus on bright star via standard viewfinder (not magnifed angle viewfinder). Canon 40D on tripod (no tracking - so trailing) with manual shutter invocation (not remote release). DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 100% of 1 Images ISO 800 10 Sec, F=55mm f/11, 9 DARK @15 sec, 75 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5
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