Enchanted Skies
Comets, etcetera

Comet Neat C/2001 Q4 (imaged May 19, 2004 near Ft. Davis, TX)
Comet Neat Map showing the location of Comet Neat on May 19th

 

Object Information                                            Imaging Details

Comet Neat was bright enough to see visually during the late winter the most of Spring, 2004. The comet was visible only to Southern Hemisphere observers until early May, and reached maximum brightness of around 3.0.

This image was taken at my first Texas Star Party on May 19. The comet had climbed much higher into the sky by then, but had dimmed somewhat to about magnitude 4.

The image was taken with my (then) brand new Canon 300D, and was my first attempt at a comet. I took six, 30-second images at ISO 800 and one 30-second image at ISO 1600 (and thought that was a lot). The camera was mounted atop my C11, and was taken unguided.

Telescope:

Orion ED80 (rr), Televue 85 (dd)
Camera:
 Canon 300D and 350D (type 1 modified)
Filter(s):
  
Misc. Optics:
 Williams Optics 0.8X field flattener (for ED80)
Exposures:
 1, 4 and 5 minutes @ ISO 800
Guiding:
 ED80 mounted on (and autoguided with) ATP wedge-mounted NS11. TV 85 mounted on G11.
Processing:
 Images converted to tifs with Photoshop CS3, then aligned and stacked in Nebulosity. Curves/levels adjustments ith Photoshop CS3.

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Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)