This is a composite image of comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2. I took a series of 1-minute exposures early this morning while the comet was hovering above the trees to the southwest. I stacked the images to make this composite image with the images registered on the comets nucleus; hence the comets nucleus is pinpoint while the stars appear as dotted trails. This is due to the comets motion against the background of stars. The comets greenish color is mostly due to diatomic carbon (C2). The strong moonlight and thin clouds obliterated the comets tail in the final image, but there is still a very faint hint of the tail pointing to the upper left in the original image. Celestron 5-inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, Canon 350D DSLR, ISO1600, six 60-second and two 30-seocnd images. Dark frames were subtracted. North is up and east is to the left. I may revisit this comet when the bright moon is out of the night sky once again.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 18:01:07 +0000
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