No Lovejoy?

Hey Guys,

Just wondering if anyone is going after "Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy"? Haven't seen anything in here yet?

- Daniel

Yea I'm surprised too, will be higher into the skies in January for us in the northern hemisphere, there are some pics in the asto forum on DPReview.

Oh I've never signed up to dp review's forum. Will check it out, thanks for the pointer.

Woohoo ... clear-ish skies! Just snapped a couple of subs using my tripod and 100mm macro lens (didn't have time to unpack and setup my scope from storage). Will process and post some pics tomorrow.

Also tried to complicate things by using my new star analyser spectroscopic filter, though untracked and unguided wasn't expecting too much. Think I should get the hang of it first on brighter objects, haha.

What would people suggest for somebody with no tracking who want to get an image of the comet?

Obviously it will be the normal compromise between focal length (the longer the better) and exposure time (short enough to avoid trailing). I'm guessing that I'll be choosing between -

100mm f2.8 macro - fast and wide (easy to find the comet). But will it be more than a tiny blob?
70-200 f4 - zoom will make it easy to find the comet and centre it. But 1 stop slower than alternatives.
300mm f2.8 - loads of light gathering power, but short exposure times.

Am I right in assuming that 100, 200 and 300mm will allow exposures of around 4, 2 and 1.5 seconds before trailing becomes a problem? And I guess that stacking would be helpful for noise reduction.

It's around Dec 20 at the moment so it's moving pretty fast for static shot. My numbers come out at just over 1 second exposure for 2 pixel movement with 100mm at that declination. If you have a nifty-fifty, I'd be tempted to go for that. You could frame it to get the comet and Orion (M42) in the same shot.
The head is quite bright but the tail is very faint.

I managed to get a look at it a couple of nights back as it passed M79 but I haven't had any luck imaging it yet.

Steve.

Hey guys,

Not had a chance to process the images yet ... I shot around 2 - 2.5 second subs at 100mm. Managed to get a decent green fuzzy blub. Thought the 600 rule would mean I'd get closer to 6 sec subs but as Steve says, just over a second.

Be a few days before I get time to upload, sorry for the suspense.

- Daniel

SteveInNZ wrote in post #17357818
If you have a nifty-fifty, I'd be tempted to go for that. You could frame it to get the comet and Orion (M42) in the same shot.

Excellent! I'll dig mine out when the clouds give up.

Nowhere near as impressive as others will get, but here's Lovejoy from a white zone in New Jersey.

70D, 55-250 @55mm, ISO1000, f/6.3

iOptron SkyTracker + DSS + Lightroom
14x20sec + 5 dark
Heavily cropped

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qCYG​Nf

Hey all,

Here's my shots, not so impressive either ... but what I managed with my tripod and 100mm.

12x 2 second subs stacked, full frame:

Added a few lines for all those who are in need of a simple but effective localization and view of Lovejoy comet (Even with naked eye if your sky is dark enough).
See if the link below can help:

LINK

Have fun.

I have some shots but I used this crappy sigma 70-300mm at 70mm and it has horrible vignetting, I mean horrible! So I have been tweaking away at the image since last saturday with no avail. I am going to go back and shoot it again with the 135mm elmarit next time the sky gets clear and be done with it. I really wanted to fit the pleiades in with the comet but it just aint gonna happen with this cheap sigma.

Keen to see what you snapped anyway, regardless of vignetting.

- Daniel