GUEST COMETS ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY Last updated: 8 November 2006

Some ETX users have sent me examples of their astrophotography. If you have some examples you would like included here please send me a description of how you made the astrophotos and a copy of the images as GIF or JPEG files (due to internet email gateway issues, please send only one image file per message). Send to etx@me.com. Alternatively, if you have created your own web page with your examples please let me know and I'll include a link to your site.

Submitted by: Rick Stankiewicz (stankiewiczr@nexicom.net) [8 Nov 06]
This past month in Southern Ontario has not been the greatest for nighttime views, so trying to view Comet Swan has been trying. October 30th was an exception. I knew this new comet was low in the northwestern sky and heading to the constellation of Hercules, but to get a clear night and to find it was still there was a real bonus. The evening was not ideal, due to a light polluted sky from my location south of Peterborough and a moon that was just past the first quarter, but I decided to try and record what I saw. I mounted my Canon Ftb piggy back on my Meade ETX-90 and loaded with 800 ASA print film, I recorded images with 2 to 3 minute exposures. Using a 135mm lense I was just able to fit the "keystone" of Hercules in the frame. The attached image shows not only shows Comet Swan in the lower left of the frame (next to Epsilon Herculis, mag. 3.9), but M13 (mag. 5.0) is quite visible to the upper right. You can sure see why Messier (or anyone else for that matter) would confuse this globular cluster for a comet. In this case, Comet Swan is about the same magnitude and diameter in the eyepiece as the famous cluster. However, Comet Swan having just reached its closest approach to earth on October 26th at 1 Astronomical Unit (distance from the sun to the earth) is a lot closer than M13 is at 23,000 light-years away. Comet Swan does not exhibit its long filamentous tail in this image (nor was it visible in my eyepiece), but the green glow sets it apart from the whiter colour of the stars, including M13's 300,000 star cluster. Not a perfect night, but better than we have had for sometime and well worth the wait.
Submitted by: dass717@aol.com [8 Nov 06]
First attempt ever at autoguiding. Somewhat successful as you will notice in the two images. Tracked the comet well across the sky. Of course that is why the background stars are blurred. Final color image shows slight hint of the tail. The red file fits in jpeg shows more of the comet's tail. Twenty one 30 second exposures automatically stacked by autostar suite. Thanks for looking.
Submitted by: Dieter.Wolf@DNSint.com [28 Oct 06]
I took the chance of yesterday's clear evening for a look at comet Swan, C2006/M4, which - surprisingly - was brighter than expected. Starting on my way home from work I stopped to look at it with a 10x25 binocular in twilight. Swan could easily be seen with it as a 'nebulosity' very similar to closeby M13, but brighter. To be honest the first time I aimed the binocular towards Hercules I thought to see M13 - when it was Swan... At home I quickly put my ETX-70AT onto the tripod, grabbed the scope with one hand and my computer/camera bag withn the other one and went outside into the garden. I did a quick and dirty one-star alignment and was ready to go in less than 15 minutes of time (that's ONE reason why I like this little scope) The comet showed a bright nucleus and large coma in the 25mm ocular. Interesting color - very greenish. No tail was visible from my location (would have needed OO-skies...) This shot is a 50x6s exposure with ToUCam SC1 at prime focus, 2006-10-26, 20:10 local time.
Submitted by: Tim Wood (timwould@gmail.com) [28 Oct 06]
Here is a picture of comet Swan taken with a Canon digital Rebel camera piggybacked on top of my ETX-125. I have OVER enhanced this picture to try and bring out the detail of the comet's tail, which is barley visible.
Here is a picture of comet Swan taken with a Canon digital Rebel camera piggybacked on top of my ETX-125. I stacked 21 exposures and selected a star to align the exposures. Of course, this made the comet show movement.
Here is a picture of comet Swan taken with my ETX-125 using the DSI-C camera with a 0.3 focal reducer. It basically just shows the nucleus of the comet with no tail. What was interesting when I took this picture, I also had my Canon digital Rebel camera piggybacked on top of the ETX and I could not spot the comet in any of the Canon exposures. I even took 2-3 minute exposures and could find no trace. Both the DSI-C and Canon were aligned well and it was a reasonably dark site. Of course I got some nice exposures of stars!
Submitted by: Job Geheniau (geheniau@xs4all.nl) [18 Oct 06]
Comet Swan with ETX90.
And here one to see this fast movement of Comet Swan.
Submitted by: Tim Wood (timwould@gmail.com) [8 Sep 06]
Long time reader, first time poster. And dittos to all the wonderful comments about your site and the efforts you put forth. I purchased my ETX-125 UHTC from OPT in February 06. I had also purchased the LPI and then shortly thereafter, the DSI-C. I have read many great tips and tricks from your site and also purchased a number of astronomy books to forward my new hobby. Of course, astrophotography is quite a challenge, but is also rewarding too. I've got the basics figured out, but still need to get deeper in to image processing. I will continue to use your site to sharpen my (very dull) skills.

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See Comet photos from 2005 at the Guest Astrophotography - Comets page.

See Comet photos from 2004 at the Guest Astrophotography - Comets page.

See Comet photos from 2003 at the Guest Astrophotography - Comets page.

See Comet photos from 2002 at the Guest Astrophotography - Comets page.

See Comet photos from 2001 at the Guest Astrophotography - Comets page.

See Comet Hale-Bopp photos at the Guest Astrophotography - Comet Hale-Bopp page.

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