Comet Lovejoy C/2007 E2

[Galactic2000]

Hi ALL,

Here is my shot of Comet Lovejoy C/2007 E2 taken from RAS-Observatory.org in New Mexico on 5/11/2007 at 06:39 U.T.

This very Green (Cyanogen) 9th mag comet is now moving thru the constellation of Draco, it sits nice and high for Northern observers.
It's only expected to get to 7th magnitude at best, but is still visible in Small scopes and binos from a dark location.

Captured with a Tak TOA 6" refractor, and STL11000 CCD, 20 minute exposure LRGB. Several little galaxies are visible in the background, Look below the comets tail.

[paul f. campbell]

Hi John

I really like your comet photos, great work thanks.

[JAICOA]

John i have to say that it's one of the best photos i have seen of the comet. lovely background and the tail is very long with a neighbor at it's trail. Clear Skies

[andyschlei]

Very nice. Is the comet moving slowly? Most times I have shot a comet I have had significant movement over 20 minutes.

[Dave Mitsky]

That's an excellent shot, John. As it show happens, my friend Tony Donnangelo and I observed Comet Lovejoy last night from Cherry Springs State Park using his 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob. Unfortunately, the transparency was not very good so the comet was a bit washed out. The last time I saw the comet, which was about three weeks ago, it was in Aquila. Last night, it was situated in Draco.

Dave Mitsky

[Galactic2000]

That's an excellent shot, John. As it show happens, my friend Tony Donnangelo and I observed Comet Lovejoy last night from Cherry Springs State Park using his 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob. Unfortunately, the transparency was not very good so the comet was a bit washed out. The last time I saw the comet, which was about three weeks ago, it was in Aquila. Last night, it was situated in Draco.

Dave Mitsky

Hi Dave,

Yes, I had the same High cirruss and water vapor issue in Ohio too, the transparency and seeing sucked! This is why I gave up and went home to dial up RAS-Obsaervatory in New Mexico, actually New mexico had high clouds too, not as bad. It was much dryer air and darker, so the comet showed up better.

Glad to got to see it though, it was tough visually here in Ohio.

I bet cherry springs is an awesome site, I'll have to make a road trip to check it out sometime.

[Galactic2000]

Very nice. Is the comet moving slowly? Most times I have shot a comet I have had significant movement over 20 minutes.

Hi Andy,

Comet Lovejoy is moving relatively slow, but still not slow enough for a typical 20 minutes deep sky exposure, the original combined LRGB showed a small amount of nucleus trailing. Each of the sub exposures were only 5 minutes, and with Lovejoys slower speed, trailing was not as bad as I was expecting.

I tried some new processing techniques that helped, removing all the stars in one LRGB images align the nucleus and then layer all the stars back in.

This does required some image processing skills and time, to align the nucleus and the stars seperately from the LRGB images and keep it all looking natural.

I was very happy with my results.

[Torsten]

That is a very beautiful colour, and yes, I can see at lest one galaxy below the tail. Cool!