George's Astronomical Observations

Comets page

Comet Tuttle is displaying a lawn-sprinkler shape as our vantage point is just right to see it face on, much like a spiral galaxy. It is difficult to see in normal images. The image on the right was derived by taking the difference of two images that were taken a couple of hours apart.

Jan 1, 2008 Image showing Tuttle's rotation

Dec 31, 2007 Image showing Tuttle's rotation	853 second image Comet Tuttle is displaying a lawn-sprinkler shape as our vantage point is just right to see it face on, much like a spiral galaxy. It is difficult to see in normal images. The image on the right was derived by taking the difference of two images that were taken a couple of hours apart.

Image of Comet Tuttle Dec 09, 2007 This image was made using a StellaCam II with a 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and focal reducer and is comprised of 20 8.53 second images (< 3 minutes total) compiled using Registax. This Image is comprised of 94 x 8.53 second images. There appears to be brightening in PA 315 through PA 0	Larger Image

Images of Comet Holmes Dec 09, 2007 - Larger Image Look at the head on this thing! - Larger Image

This image was made using a StellaCam II with a 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and focal reducer and is comprised of 268 8.53 second images (38 minutes total) compiled using Registax. My mount's sickness has been corrected using PHD Guiding, a piece of free-ware written by Graig Stark of Stark Labs. Image of PHD Guiding Tests	Image of Comet Holmes Nov 30, 2007 Larger Image Larger Image

Holmes Nov 30, 2007

Larger Montage Image

Larger Image	Image of Comet Tuttle Nov 30, 2007 This image was made using a StellaCam II with a 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and focal reducer and is comprised of 252 8.53 second images (35 minutes) compiled using Registax.

Image of Comet 8/P Tuttle November 28, 2007 Larger Image This image was made using a StellaCam II with a 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and focal reducer and is comprised of 86 8.53 second images compiled using Registax.

	Image of Comet 17/P Holmes November 28, 2007 Larger Image This image was made using a StellaCam II with a 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and focal reducer and is comprised of 96 8.53 second images compiled using Registax.

Image of Comet 17/P Holmes November 23, 2007 during full moon Larger Image This image was made using a StellaCam II at prime focus of an 8" f/5 Celestron reflector and is comprised of 223 4 second images compiled using Registax.

	A pot-shot of Comet 17/P Holmes November 22, 2007 during huge moon and crappy skies... Larger Image This image was made using a StellaCam II and 25mm c-mount lens and is comprised of six 2 second images compiled using Registax.

Comet 17/P Holmes November 14, 2007 (00:30UT)

Holy crap! Comet Holmes' coma is at least the size of the moon's disk as seen in this overlaid image of the two...

Embossed image showing plasma tail-like structure.

28.5 minute exposure
200 images @ 8.55 seconds each; Dark subtracted; Stacked using Registax

Image of Comet 17/P Holmes overlaid on image of moon

Larger Image

Comet 17/P Holmes

November 4, 2007 (00:30UT)

Larger Image - The jet activity seems significant making for some interesting shots. The jury is still out as to what may have caused this explosion. Comet Holmes is turning out to be quite spectacular.

Larger Image More jets Another look And another look

November 2, 2007 ~00:08 - 00:12 UT

Larger Image I have a crappy digital camera.

Comet 17P Holmes October 31, 2007 00:30-01:00UT

Tri color image attempt

Image of Comet 17/P Holmes Click for larger image Visible light image Broadband filter image

The image above was obtained using a Celestron 8" F/5 with Stellacam II at prime focus, and color filter wheel and is comprised of:

L 50 4.2 second Broadband filtered images;
R 50 4.2 second red filtered images;
G 50 8.55 second red filtered images;
B 50 2 second blue filtered images;
L 50 2 second Visible light unfiltered images...

All images dark subtracted then stacked in Registax and LRGB'd using Adobe. Color levels were tweaked so that the result closely matched what I visually observed using a 8" F/6 @ 48X

Comet 17P Holmes Oct 29, 2007 00:30 UT

Image of Comet 17/P Holmes Click for larger image

Comet 17P Holmes October 28 versus October 29

Image of Comet 17/P Holmes Click for larger image

Comet 17/P Holmes October 28, 2007 Larger Image	Holy Crap, what a comet! The jury isn't out on what happened. I easily was able to see this as being larger than stellar with the unaided eye. It is gold and of appreciable size in the finder. This image is a combination of a few hundred dark subtracted half and one second images, shot with a StellaCam II at prime focus of a Celestron 8" f/5 reflector.

Comet Lovejoy - Imaged on May 9, 2007 01:00:00UT with an 8" Celestron and StellaCam II at prime focus. 50 x 8.5 second integration		Larger Image 5 X 8.5 seconds

Larger Image		Comet Lovejoy - Imaged on May 9, 2007 This is a composite of 6 integrations, each of which is made up of a few to several integrations of 8.5 seconds each.

Click for larger integrated image		Comet Lovejoy - Imaged on May 7, 2007 01:00:00UT with an 8" Celestron and StellaCam II at prime focus. Another Image

Comet McNaught C2006/P1 Imaged January 10, 2007

1/4 second images, Nikon CP 4300

Image 2 Image 3

Click for larger image

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