Sunday 31 March 2013

Comet PANSTARRS approaches the Andromeda Galaxy

I popped out to a local hill on the edge of Mousehold Heath within the city of Norwich and took a series of 36 pictures of the comet with M31, the Andromeda galaxy in the frame. Each exposure was 2.5 seconds, and I collected 36 of them. I used the modified Canon 1000D at ISO1600 unguided on a tripod with an old 135mm f/2.8 lens at about f/5. I stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and created a background to subtract manually in Paint Shop Pro. I definitely need more exposure on this one, and tracking. But it clearly shows both objects. It was horrendously cold, so I didn't have the time or the patience to get flat and dark frames. I did spot the comet with 10 x 50 Binoculars in the twilight in the North West and it looked rather impressive, with the tail clearly visible.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

apologies for lack of activity

Apologies but I'm preparing a talk for an exhibition of all BAS's work on Saturday at Norwich arts centre 2 pm. Also,thrweather has continued to be pretty cloudy. I have another observation to report. A positive sighting of cometPANSTARRS from the lab window through a 5" telescope! It ws tiny dot with a small coma in the deep twilight. Yes! (Apologies I'm using android to enter t this post)
<