nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5759
Loc: London UK
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The best comet around at the moment high in the south after dusk in Vulpecula - here's my e-finder shots in 20s exp from last night with near full-moon below - the comet's motion south in <1hr clearly recorded with 85mm fl camera lens 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5759
Loc: London UK
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Here's a 300s [15x20s] shot via my piggybacked ETX-70 OTA Anyone else observing this comet 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4358
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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I will be Maurice - took time out to travel in Far East and see the eclipse 
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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Special Ed
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/03
Posts: 4309
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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Quote:
Anyone else observing this comet
I looked for it near the end of July with my ISB's (the telescope was trained on Jupiter), thought I might have glimpsed it. I hope to try and follow it after Luna begins to wane. Several others have posted reports and images here.
Nice pics, especially with all that moonlight.
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Michael Rosolina
8" f/10 Orange Tube SCT
4.25" f/4.2 Astroscan Reflector
SVP 3.6" f/13.6 CA Reflector
40mm PST f/10
APM Germany HD 15x70 binoculars
Canon 12x36 IS II binoculars
Mark I Eyeball
My CN Gallery
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5759
Loc: London UK
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Hi Tony [did wonder about your absence  ] and thanks Michael - comet animated here
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5759
Loc: London UK
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Here's last night's pair 35min apart via my e-finder - 5% crop from full frame rotated 45 deg anticlockwise - forms a 'cross-eyed' stereo pair with comet floating above star background
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4358
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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I see the comet behind the stars!
OK here is my effort. Tracking the comet for ~90 minutes spanning 00:00UT 9th August 2009. North right
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4358
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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Heres the untracked (star freeze) version
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5759
Loc: London UK
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Nice images Tony Quote:
I see the comet behind the stars!
Your eyes must be transposed then - for the 'cross-eyed' view 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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Robert Cook
super member
Reged: 07/23/09
Posts: 101
Loc: San Diego County, California
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nytecam wrote:
Quote:
Anyone else observing this comet
I've been following it around for a few weeks, weather permitting.  It really gets around, doesn't it?  Locating it last night involved a particularly easy hop from Eta Sagittae. I haven't ever seen a tail on it, which can only mean...OMG, it's headed straight for us!   Quick, somebody alert Jerry Bruckheimer--he'll know what to do! 
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4358
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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Quote:
I haven't ever seen a tail on it, which can only mean...OMG, it's headed straight for us!
Or its in opposition to the sun - in which case the tail points straight away from us - the comet can be mving away from us and this will still be true.
Actually with this comet remaining remote from the sun (~3 AU at perihelion) its never likely to get a tail
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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CarlosEH
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Reged: 01/19/05
Posts: 4150
Loc: Pembroke Pines, Broward County...
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Maurice and Tonk,
Excellent images of Comet Christensen (C/2006 W3). A bright nucleus and small coma, but no tail at this time. I hope to see it soon myself. Thank you for sharing them with us all.
Carlos
Carlos
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mich_al
super member
Reged: 05/10/09
Posts: 125
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Anyone still tracking this comet ? I found it evey observing night for about 6 weeks then couldn't observe for about a week. Now the last 3 tries, no luck. Has it dimmed considerably ?
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canukLX90
member
Reged: 12/25/08
Posts: 65
Loc: B.C. Canada
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Hi,
I have been keeping tabs on the comet. Attached is my latest image of the comet taken 25 Sept. at 0500 UT with
an AT66ED,15 X 20 second lights at ISO 800.
Cheers...
PJ
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Meade LX90 ACF 12" with MoonLite focuser
Astro-Tech AT66ED Guidescope
Meade Ultra Wedge
Meade DSI 3 color / LPI imagers
DFK21AU04.AS imager
TV 2.5X / 5X Powermates
Canon Rebel 450D
AIP4WIN
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Special Ed
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/03
Posts: 4309
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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Nice pic, PJ. It looks as though the coma is smaller than other images you have posted. Is that because of exposure times or just the comet dimming?
Quote:
Anyone still tracking this comet ? I found it evey observing night for about 6 weeks then couldn't observe for about a week. Now the last 3 tries, no luck. Has it dimmed considerably ?
We are just coming out of a solid two weeks of cloudy weather so I haven't seen the comet for a while, but I'm guessing with the Moon on the increase, Christensen would be hard to spot.
It is finally clearing here, so I'm going to look for it tonight (and also give C/217P (Linear) a go).
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Michael Rosolina
8" f/10 Orange Tube SCT
4.25" f/4.2 Astroscan Reflector
SVP 3.6" f/13.6 CA Reflector
40mm PST f/10
APM Germany HD 15x70 binoculars
Canon 12x36 IS II binoculars
Mark I Eyeball
My CN Gallery
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Tonk
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/19/04
Posts: 4358
Loc: Leeds, UK, 54N
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Quote:
It looks as though the coma is smaller than other images you have posted. Is that because of exposure times or just the comet dimming?
Neither - the image histogram shows that the black point is miset and much of the dim edge of the comet coma has been "clipped" to black
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Televue 85, GM-8/Gemini, Canon 40D (unmodded), Canon 450D (modded w/Astronomiks clip-ins - UV/IR, OWB)
Coronado SM60/BF10, Baader Herschel Wedge
Leeds Sky Clock Ripon Sky Clock
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Ray4852
sage
Reged: 09/30/08
Posts: 402
Loc: Arcade, NY
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I been tracking this comet plus a few others since spring. I haven't been able to observe in 6 weeks. The weather has been to cloudy to take a peek at it.
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Home Built 18 dobsonian
Panoptic 27mm
Tele vue 16mm 9mm naglers
Tele vue big barlow
Telrad and DSC
deepsky and skytools software
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canukLX90
member
Reged: 12/25/08
Posts: 65
Loc: B.C. Canada
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Special Ed,
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. The last
image was processed a bit different from previous posts.
I changed the De-Bayerization algorithm for my DSLR in
the image processing software. I'll have to do a
comparison run to see how it changes an image. The only
other processing done to the last post was a gamma scaling
to 0.80 to darken the sky background. I like my sky
background dark, not milky soft with noise. As they
say beauty is in the eye of the beholder (;
Cheers...
PJ
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Meade LX90 ACF 12" with MoonLite focuser
Astro-Tech AT66ED Guidescope
Meade Ultra Wedge
Meade DSI 3 color / LPI imagers
DFK21AU04.AS imager
TV 2.5X / 5X Powermates
Canon Rebel 450D
AIP4WIN
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canukLX90
member
Reged: 12/25/08
Posts: 65
Loc: B.C. Canada
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The attached image was taken on Sept. 23 around 0500 UT.
It is an average stack of:
3X20 seconds
9X15 seconds
6X10 seconds
ISO 800
LX90 12 inch
fits files bias and dark calibrated
final fits file gamma adjusted from 1.0 to 0.80
jpeg file brightness and contrast adjusted slightly
to reduce background sky noise.
It certainly does not have a bright and an extended coma!
Soon this snowball will be heading into the fir trees to
the southwest..it will be sadly missed (;
Cheers...
PJ
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Meade LX90 ACF 12" with MoonLite focuser
Astro-Tech AT66ED Guidescope
Meade Ultra Wedge
Meade DSI 3 color / LPI imagers
DFK21AU04.AS imager
TV 2.5X / 5X Powermates
Canon Rebel 450D
AIP4WIN
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Special Ed
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/03
Posts: 4309
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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PJ,
This closeup is another interesting image showing the elongation of the coma that is hinted at in your Sept. 25th image. Sometimes Dennis Persyk, Tonk, and others post the negative of their images--have you ever done that? One can often see subtle parts of the comet that get lost or are invisible in the "real" version.
The NWS's timing was a little off on their forecast--it didn't clear here until this morning and even though I got up an hour early, but the time the clouds went away I had to leave for work so I was unable to look for any comets. It's supposed to be cloudy again by tonight. 
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Michael Rosolina
8" f/10 Orange Tube SCT
4.25" f/4.2 Astroscan Reflector
SVP 3.6" f/13.6 CA Reflector
40mm PST f/10
APM Germany HD 15x70 binoculars
Canon 12x36 IS II binoculars
Mark I Eyeball
My CN Gallery
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