Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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Hello Cloudy Nights Astrophotography Nuts,
I have a specific challenge for you! As you know, we are going to be visited by 2 comets in the next few months and I’d like to see if we can capture them all. So, from now until the end of June, I challenge all of our photographers to capture these two jewels of our solar system. Please post your entries in this thread.
NOTE: Please include the Time and Date of Photo, location and equipment used!
For a more detailed description of these comets, please visit Tim Harincar’s website: SkyRover's Comets of 2004
The following graphics are courtesy of Tim Harincar ... Thank you, Tim!
Comet Neat, C/2001Q4
Comet Linear, C/2002T7
Please note that both of these comets will be visible together on May 30th, as depicted by Tim’s graphic of what to expect:
I hope that someone is able to capture both of these together!
And as a special bonus…Comet Bradfield, C/2004 F4 will be making a limited appearance. Please visit Tim’s site for a more complete description of Comet Bradfield and you can also view a table of coordinates posted by Jason Joy in this post: Comet Bradley Discussion Thread
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Tom 
Tele Vue 102mm f/8.6 on an EzTouch
Vixen 80mm f/5 A80SSWT on a grab-n-go mount
Edited by Tom L (04/21/04 05:24 PM)
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Going To Try shooting Q4 NEAT From Geraldton, Western Australia. Will Be Using a Nikon SLR & Kodak ISO400 film. I have planned a 3 day observing & photography session from a good Dark Sky Location. I have not as yet done much in the way of Astrophotography, So I need some Ideas on Exposure times. I will be using a 300mm Telephoto lens, & a 100x Telephoto with a 2x Converter. I have 6 Rolls to play around with on The 8th, 9th & 10th of May.
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skadder
sage
Reged: 03/22/04
Posts: 236
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I didn't know abot this....I am a newbie...but is this visual feast for southern hemisphere only?
Adam
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ST80 on EQ1
Canon 300d
Pentax 10x25 Binos
Berkut 10X50 mono
Thinking about a 8" Dob...
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Tom this well be my first time to try and take a picture of a comet and what i have to work with is a PENTAX CAMERA AND A 50MM LENS 1.4 AND MIGHT TRY 800 FILM.i WOULD LIKE A LONGER LENS,STILL LOOKING.I can mount it on my SN10 with an eyepice.I am going to a star party on may 14 to 16 I dont think my web cam can pick up the comet.What els do i need?
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QiuHY
Vendor
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 101
Loc: Beijing CHINA
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Hello Tom, I will be ready to capture these two (or three?) comets, and join this contest.But I am in Northern hemisphere so the comet's is very near to the horizon.
I had captured C2002T7 twice before with my cool ccd. One is November last year at the mag.12 one is last month about mag 6. Can I post these two image also? Of cause these two pictures is not good,because they are captured in big city
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QHY2 cooled CCD camera,QHY8 cooled big ccd camera(1.8inch 6.0mp).Some new small economical ccd (ICX259AL,ICX204AL,ICX429AL)camera is under development.
Edited by QiuHY (04/21/04 11:31 AM)
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Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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QiuHY, please do.
To answer a few questions (sorry for being so tardy about this)... All of these should be visible in the northern hemisphere, even though Comet Linear will be close to the horizon, as will Comet Bradfield. Our southern hemisphere Cloudy Nighters will definitely have a better opportunity for LINEAR and Bradfield, but I have seen some amazing twilight photography from our northern hemisphere CN'ers also.
For a more detailed description of NEAT and LINEAR, please read the article on Sky and Telescope's website The Double Comet Show of 2004
NOTE: Please include the Time and Date of Photo, location and equipment used!
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QiuHY
Vendor
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 101
Loc: Beijing CHINA
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Thanks Tom.Today our sky become clear .I think it is the first chance for me to go out to observe. I consider to go to a dark site to try to find the comet at next morning. If I captured some picture I will let you know of post them on the board.
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QHY2 cooled CCD camera,QHY8 cooled big ccd camera(1.8inch 6.0mp).Some new small economical ccd (ICX259AL,ICX204AL,ICX429AL)camera is under development.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Tom, I wont let you down 
I just post a photo as my entry on the Q4 thread in CDD & digital.
As a hint for more challenge, I saw a guy useing a canno caught Q4's tail on a 5 minutes exposure last weekend in a star party, too bad I didn't bring my camera.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I created the graphics above to show the view from a vantage of 45 degrees NORTH (i.e. Minneapolis) - adjust accorgingly for your latitude if in the northern hemisphere.
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Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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Hey Tim, that's the same as mine. I have been meaning for weeks to ask you what latitude this was plotted for. I've noticed that other sources have not given that information when depicting a graphic view (S&T comes to mind!).
Darcy, please post any pictures in this thread as well. This is the gathering place for all photos. I hope to see it grow in the coming weeks!
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Tom
Tele Vue 102mm f/8.6 on an EzTouch
Vixen 80mm f/5 A80SSWT on a grab-n-go mount
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Comet Q4, 8PM 04/22, Auckland, New Zealand
Orion ED80 Sony F707, Optiluxe 40mm EPP 10 seconds
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Q4 April 23rd 2004 0827 UT (2027 local time)
Hamilton, New Zealand.
HomeBrew Maksutov Newton 7.1" at prime focus f6, Nikon D100 SLR, 30 seconds at ISO3200. Seeing 3/10, transperancy 3/10 with haze, and high cloud close.
First light for the new camera. More to follow.
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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And without wanting to hog the limelight, I also tried a normal telephoto.
Q4 April 23rd 2004 0827 UT (2021 local time)
Hamilton, New Zealand.
Nikon D100 SLR, Nikkor 300mm f4.5 at 4.5, 30 seconds at ISO3200. Seeing 3/10, transperancy 3/10 with haze, and high cloud close.
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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All nice images. When you going to point that new Nikon at some Nebulas Gary?
Charles
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Charles,
as soon as we get some decent weather. I intended rising early to image both Neat and Linear, but the cloud precluded this. Tonight maybe, with Eta Carina being a starter. Lotta fun this digital.
Gary
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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That is definitely an AM image over here and to low on the southern horizon for me to shoot. I would have to go to the Florida Keys to probably get a decent picture of it.
Charles
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Hey come on, is nobody else playing this game.
Last night, again through wispy high cloud, This time with my humble wee Zeiss ED80 refractor, Nikon D100, and 3 mins exposure. It is moving quickly, so grab it while you can. Yet to see T7 in the morning sky.
Regards,
Gary
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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That's an awesome shot, Gary! I expect things to start picking up (hopefully).
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Tom
Tele Vue 102mm f/8.6 on an EzTouch
Vixen 80mm f/5 A80SSWT on a grab-n-go mount
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Can I post a picture here of Bradfield with Tabur?
I did not make the picture, and thus don't want to enter into the contest, more for "informational" purposes
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Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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I want original compositions from our members. Have your friend join and submit it. I saw the picture you are refering to, very cool!
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Tom
Tele Vue 102mm f/8.6 on an EzTouch
Vixen 80mm f/5 A80SSWT on a grab-n-go mount
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P_Nut
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/21/03
Posts: 659
Loc: Novo mesto, Slovenia, Europe
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Ok, i dont have a chance against you guys, but i'll try : 
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www.vesolje.gajba.net
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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NEAT 2001 Q4 08 May 2004 9:40pm CT
Lenexa, Kansas USA
Watec 120N CCD & adapter to a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lense
Gain set on 35%, Gamma set on low
30 x 8.5 second images stacked in registax2
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TOMars
sage
Reged: 02/14/04
Posts: 233
Loc: Lancaster, CA
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NEAT, 05.08.04. AR-6, Sony DSC-S50, 40mm Plossl. 30 images stacked and processed in Registax and Photoshop. I must be crazy posting this after seeing the previous entries, but here goes anyway.
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Tom Varden
Lancaster, CA
http://labmonkeyonline.com/astrophotography_by_tom_varden.htm
Edited by TOMars (05/10/04 01:44 AM)
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Here's a particularly terrible entry. Shot in suburban New Jersey from a heavily light polluted sidewalk, on a very humid, somewhat cloudy night, using a tripod, but without any kind of drive mechanism (as obvious). How I sometimes wish I could move back to SW Colo. or NE Nevada where I grew up.
Anyway, guess this will be my incentive to finally get the right equipment to allow me to use this camera with my scope. For now, I hope I can jerry rig something over the next few days to at least enable me to use the 300 mm lens to catch a few shots piggybacked on my scope.
Technical trivia:
Camera Model Name
Canon EOS 10D
Shooting Date/Time
5/11/2004 9:25:34 PM
Shooting Mode
Manual
Tv( Shutter Speed/Exposure time )
68 sec.
Av( Aperture Value )
4.0
ISO Speed
1600 (equiv.)
Lens
75.0 - 300.0mm
Focal Length
80.0mm
Image Size
1360x2048
Image Quality
Fine
The smudge above the arc of light scatter is the comet. Above and slightly right is Altarf (in Cancer). The brightest of the star tracks within the arc of light-scatter is Procyon.
Below is a cropped image at full-scale, with Altarf above and Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4) shown as an elongated smudge below.
As a matter of minor interest, I took one other exposure at ~140 sec., which has been nearly impossible to recover a sensible image from, given the "overexposure" the camera's chip read, due to all that scatter.
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rydberg
sage
Reged: 02/25/04
Posts: 326
Loc: Richmond, KY, USA
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Here's my contribution. I can only say that I got the color somewhat right  ...
Marco Ciocca
Richmond, KY
This is the result of stacking, with registax, 12 frames.
These were taken between 10:15 and 10:45 PM Est with a 6" Newtonian, Afocal eyepiece (25 mm plossl) projection on Canon a-40 (manual mode, 13s exposure, Iso 200 @ f/4.0.
The light pollution and transparency were bad: I could barely make out Procyon with the naked eye...
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Oberwerk 11x56
pentax PCF WP II 20x60
Garrett Optical 20x80 IF Gemini
8" LX90 f/10
Vixen ed80sf, Orion 80mm f/11 guidescope
Lxd55, Atlas eq-g
Celestron NexImage
Orion Deep Space Starshoot as a imager
Meade DSI pro as a guider.
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QiuHY
Vendor
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 101
Loc: Beijing CHINA
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2001Q4 May 12,2004 Beijing China
QHY 3.3mega cooled CCD + Russian 135mmF3.5 Lens
HYGP mount autoguided
Exposure 270 sec.Gain=166
at a mag. 5 sky (30km from Beijing City)
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QHY2 cooled CCD camera,QHY8 cooled big ccd camera(1.8inch 6.0mp).Some new small economical ccd (ICX259AL,ICX204AL,ICX429AL)camera is under development.
Edited by QiuHY (05/13/04 12:31 PM)
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synner
sage
Reged: 01/13/04
Posts: 215
Loc: Harrow, UK
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Here's Q4 NEAT and M44 from the 15th of May, 21:05UT.
Nick King
Taken from light polluted Harrow in the UK.
75x10s unguided exposures with a ToUcam Pro SC3 and a 52mm SLR lens,
piggy-back mounted on a GM-8. Recorded with Keith's AstroImager, aligned and stacked with Keith's Image Stacker, final tweaks with the Gimp.
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http://www.synner.co.uk
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synner
sage
Reged: 01/13/04
Posts: 215
Loc: Harrow, UK
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Here's another one of the comet Q4 NEAT from 040516 21:40UT
Nick King
Taken from light polluted Harrow in the UK.
60x20s unguided exposures with an 80mm short tube refractor and a 0.5x focal reducer, mounted on a GM-8. Recorded with Keith's AstroImager, aligned and stacked with Keith's Image Stacker, final tweaks with the Gimp.
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http://www.synner.co.uk
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Nice to see you guys joining in.
First time I have spotted Linear T7, and in the twilight morning sky.
D100 Nikon, at ISO1000, 105 seconds, 300mm Nikkor lens.
Hamilton, New Zealand. 17th May, 2004, 1758UT. ()557 local time). Then after rising early I found I was able to see it in the evening sky as well, but the elements were against me getting any successful shots. Maybe tomorrow.
Regards,
Gary
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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And to show the Neat Q4 with the Beehive this one from a few nights previous.
Gary
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Hi Guys,
last night LInear was better than ever.
Same equipment as before, with 120 seconds exposure at ISO1000.
More to come in the next few days.
Regards,
Gary
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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Very Nice Gary!
Charles
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Gary BEAL
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 583
Loc: New Zealand
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Charles,
I have produced (from 12 images taken last night) an animation of the comet's movement. It is about 600kbs, and I can't get it any smaller. In a week or so I will have the webpage updated and it will be there, but until then I am stuck with this sized file. Any way I can post it here?
Gary.
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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I guess you could pos |
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