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All images below were acquired from my home in Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada unless otherwise noted - Lat:
48° 26' 45" Long: 123° 21' 30" Elev: 43m.
Take the time to
adjust your monitor
before viewing my online photos, and you will see them at their best.
| Image |
Date/Time |
Description |
Settings |
 |
2007.11.13 10:45pm PST
Victoria, BC, Canada |
Comet 17/P Holmes
The gas cloud surrounding this comet grew
in size over many weeks. There
was a green glow around the comet for awhile and
then it vanished. The comet had two faint
tails bit they disappeared
too. This comet is a chameleon - ever changing!
The bright star in this image is Mirfak
Using my unmodified Canon 30D and a 400mm telephoto lens mounted on an
Astrotrac equatorial mount, I acquired 55 images and stacked them to produce
this resultant image. Please note: the image size is much
larger as used for some of my previous images, therefore size comparisons
cannot be made using the images as posted.
Please browse this collection of photos
RASC
Victoria Centre Comet 17-P Holmes
taken by my fellow RASC members. |
Details:
Optics: Unmodified Canon 30D and Canon 400mm L series telephoto operating at
f/5.6 mounted on an Astrotrac equatorial mount.
Exposures: 55 images at 30 sec
ISO 1600,
Custom white balance to compensate for IDAS LPS filter
Processing:
ImagesPlus 3 beta 10: digital development of Canon Raw to FITS, dark & flat
frames applied. Averaging used for stacking the images, then moderate
Digital Development applied to the resultant image, and conversion of this
image to 48 bit TIFF for further processing.
ACDSee Pro 2: hand spotting image, conversion to jpg. |
 |
2007.01.11
5:42pm PST |
Comet McNaught C/2006
P1
This image is taken from my back porch,
which looks westward where the Sun had just set. I scanned the western
horizon with my 9x63 binoculars, and there it was - Comet McNaught! When I
looked again without the binoculars, it was an easy target. The comet has a
very bright core, and a super long and broad tail. It is
the brightest comet in over 40 years!
I observed and photographed this comet just in the nick of time, since it is
quickly approaching the Sun, after which our fellow observers in the
southern hemisphere will be most favoured for views of this wonderful comet. |
Camera:
Canon 30D, 1/13 sec, ISO
800, Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
telephoto operating at f/6.3, WB:daylight,
1 image. Camera mounted on a tripod. Image Processing: NeatImage: default NR
settings. Corel PhotoPaint X3: moderate contrast stretch,
moderate increased saturation, cropped & resized. |
 |
2006.10.30
7:38pm PSTLocation: Sandy
Barta
Lat: N48-23 Long: W123-47 Elev: 110m |
Comet C/2006 M4 Swan
My latest image of Comet Swan was taken
Monday evening when David Lee and I travelled to Sandy Barta's place to find
some dark sky. The dust tail is super long (over 3° in this image), and if
you look closely you will see a short ion tail just to the right of the big
one. The head of this comet is so huge and bright, I could easily spot it in
my finder scope. The image shows the head is not perfectly round, which
indicates the comet is fragmenting. The bright star below the comet is
58-Epsilon Herculis. |
Camera:
Canon 30D, 30 seconds, ISO 3200, Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
telephoto operating at f/6.3, WB:daylight,
26 images. Camera piggybacked on LX200R, normal tracking, no
guiding. Image Processing: ImagesPlus:
26 raw images converted to FITS, aligned and
stacked using Adaptive Addition 3.0, moderate contrast stretch through Digital
Development, then saved as 48 bit TIF. NeatImage: default NR
settings. Corel PhotoPaint: 48 bit TIF image converted to 24 bit RGB, cropped
& resized to 485x898 jpg. |
 |
2006.10.16
8:08pm PDTLocation:
Fairfield Community Centre
Lat: N48-25 Long: W123-21 Elev: 76m |
Comet C/2006 M4 Swan I
managed to use 9 images for this stacked image of Comet C/2006 M4 Swan
despite being finally skunked by heavy clouds drifting into the field.
There is a hint of twin tails at the 1 and 2 o'clock positions in the image.
Considering the brightness of this comet's core, it should yield spectacular
images if I can find darker skies and acquire more images. |
Camera:
Canon 30D, 30 seconds, ISO 3200, Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
telephoto operating at f/6.3, WB:daylight, IDAS
LPS filter, 9 images. Camera piggybacked on LX200R, normal tracking, no
guiding. Image Processing: ImagesPlus:
9 raw images converted to FITS, aligned and
stacked using sigma clipped average 1.4, moderate contrast stretch through Digital
Development, then saved as 48 bit TIF. NeatImage: default NR
settings. Corel PhotoPaint: 48 bit TIF image converted to 24 bit RGB, cropped
& resized to 580x718 jpg.
|
This is a black & white negative version
of the above colour image |
2005.01.04
9:41pm PSTLocation:
Bruno Quennville's place. Lat: N 48-29 Long: W123-18 Elev:
37m |
C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)
This image shows the bright central core
and the large, blue-green coma of Comet Machholz.
This image was taken with no Moon in the
sky, so the darker skies helped achieve better results, although there is no
visible tail, even when examining the negative
grayscale image. Darker sites yield images with a
wisp of two tails (ion tail and debris tail).
Star trails resulted in this image, since
the comet moves quite rapidly through the sky, and I was tracking the comet
for imaging purposes.
|
Camera:
Canon EOS 300D, 90 sec, ISO 800, WB:daylight, IDAS
LPR filter, 14 images.
Scope: LX-90 8" SCT, f/6.3,
prime focus, polar alignment (wedge), normal tracking, no guiding.
Image Processing: ImagesPlus:
original 48 bit raw format converted to 48 bit tiff, aligned and
stacked using Normalized Average, moderate contrast stretch through Digital
Development. Corel PhotoPaint: image converted to 24 bit RGB, cropped
& resized to 750x712. Alternate black and white negative image created. |
|
Click on image for full field view |
2005.01.04
11:00pm PSTLocation:
Bruno Quennville's place. Lat: N 48-29 Long: W123-18 Elev:
37m |
C/2004 Q2 (Machholz),
Hyades, Pleiades
This widefield image shows Comet Machholz
as it approaches the Pleiades, with the Hyades off to the South (left).
This image was taken with no Moon in the
sky, so the darker skies helped achieve better results, although there is no
visible tail, even when examining the negative
grayscale image. Darker sites yield images with a
wisp of two tails (ion tail and debris tail).
|
Camera:
Canon EOS 300D, ISO 800, f/5.6, 55mm fl, WB:daylight, IDAS
LPR filter. Camera piggybacked on LX-90 SCT. 10 images - 3 at 90 sec &
7 at 60 sec.
Scope: LX-90 8" SCT, f/6.3,
prime focus, polar alignment (wedge), normal tracking, no guiding.
Image Processing: ImagesPlus:
original 48 bit raw format files converted to 48 bit tiff, aligned and
stacked using Normalized Median, moderate contrast stretch through Digital
Development. Corel PhotoPaint: image converted to 24 bit RGB, cropped
& resized to 800x571. |
Click image for a wider field-of-view
This is a black & white negative version
of the above colour image |
2004.12.27
9:31pm PSTLocation:
Astronomy Café, Bruno Quennville's place. Lat: N 48-29 Long: W123-18 Elev:
37m |
C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)
This is my first image of a comet. Comet
Machholz is a very bright comet at magnitude 5.5, and is forecast to
brighten over the coming weeks.
This image was taken with a Full Moon, so
I look forward to taking more images of Comet Machholz from darker skies.
There is a bright core and a rather large
blue-green coma, despite the full Moon. There is no
visible tail.
|
Camera:
Canon EOS 300D, 200mm fl, f/5.6, 90 sec, ISO 800, WB:daylight, IDAS
LPR filter, single image.
Camera piggybacked on LX-90 SCT. Image Processing: ImagesPlus:
original 48 bit raw format converted to 48 bit tiff, aggressive
contrast stretch through Digital
Development, 2x2 bin (avg), applied. Corel PhotoPaint:
image cropped to
606x496 & small image created after NeatImage run. NeatImage: moderate noise reduction applied. |
Take the time to
adjust your monitor
before viewing my online photos, and you will see them at their best.
|
