Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught)

C/2008 A1 (McNaught): Photographed from Boyden Observatory outside Bloemfontein, South Africa.

 
Image 1. The full image was used with no cropping. According to TheSky 6 the magnitude is 7.6. Most of the stars in the area are magnitude 10 or fainter. According to the graphis (bottom) we are looking head-on rigt into the coma.
    

Image information:

Date, Time

  • 28 September 2008, 20:10
Location
  • Boyden Observatory, Bloemfontein
  • 29°02'20" S    26°24'14" E
Equipment
  • Camera: Canon 30D attached to telescope (Prime Focus)
  • Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
  • Celestron f6.3 reducer/corrector (Makes Nexstar 11 GPS a 1764mm f/6.3 instrument)
  • Focal Length: 28224mm (including the 1.6 factor of the camera).
  • Alignment stars to set up telescope: Proxima Centauri and Vega.
Exposure
  • F-stop 6.3
  • Shutter speed - 30 seconds
  • ISO 3200
Software
  • Camera was connected to Laptop computer.
  • Images Plus software was used to control the camera and RAW images were taken.
  • Initial focusing on a star was done with ImagesPlus.
  • During the "photo shoot" I used Adobe Lightroom 2 to confirm if my exposure and focus was on the dot.
Image Processing
  • Initial processing was done Images Plus 3.5. Dark frames (5) were combined and subtracted from one image. (No stacking because comet was moving.
  • Image Processing was done with Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Bridge.
    - Vignetting caused by 6.3 reducer was corrected via layer mask in Photoshop.
    - Levels
    - Noiseware Pro Plug in
Weather conditions
  • Dust on the horison. Not clear.
  • 18:00 - 17 °C - Slight wind Unknown direction
  • 20:30 - 17 °C - Slight wind; Unknown direction

Other: Soon after 20:15 the comet disappeared behind the eucalyptus trees. One day... One day I am going to hire a chain saw, and... I'd love to kill one of these water suckers.

    

Image 2.  Same image but cropped to view the comets tail.

C/2008 A1 (McNaught)
 
 
Image 3.  Same image. Inverted (negative) to have a better look at the comet's tail.
C/2008 A1 (McNaught)

 
  
Image 4.  Same image. Cropped and lightened with curves to make th small star next to the comet visible.

C/2008 A1 (McNaught)
  
Image 5/6 The False colours of comet C/2008 A1 (McNaught). (AIP4Win Software was used)

 

The path of C/2008 A1 (McNaught) created with TheSky 6.

C/2008 A1 (McNaught)