Comet Lulin again, March 1st early hours

Hey Folks, I got home from a wedding at about 2am last night to find the skies clearing very nicely, so I decidied to stay up a little longer to catch Comet Lulin from 2.30-3am thrugh the camera lens. I had found it about 5 degrees west of Leo's brightest star Regulus, but I had found that even with dark skies, it was hard to see with the naked eye, maybe it's fading a lot already? Through my 9x60mm binoculars, I estimate the comet still near magnitude 5 visually, with again a slight hint of a 'tail' stretching east for about one quarter of a degree.

This shot I got is a stack of five 30 second exposures at f3.5 using a Canon 40D and a 200mm 'L' lens, tracked on board an 8" SCT. I had to use a high ISO of 1600 to bring out some detail in the tail, I do hope that you do not find it that objectionable. Over the course of a half-hour, I could clearly see the comet move against the background of stars !

P.S. Did any of you see Saturn lately, what a sight last night, It was my first time ever seeing the rings so flat, so strange - go and look !

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/3319903870/sizes/l/

Keith..

Hi Keith


Thats a really nice image, well done.

Derek

Nice image Kieth,
I saw it last night in the big binos and its certainly impressive, with a good sign of a tail.

Very nice keith. Lovely tail!

Michael.

Awesome shot Keith. I see what you mean about the ISO1600 being 'objectionable', but to get the detail you have, I'm sure we can overlook that! With what you captured here, tail and all, what's your guess on apparent length?

Do you find the 300mm L lens good for this kind of shooting? I have been playing with the idea of piggyback photography versus camera+scope for the future for me. I know the L lens is expensive, but do you find it worth it over T-mounting the camera?

Seanie.

Keith, you are seriously tempting me to
get my gear out and have a go shooting this comet.
(although still sick, it'd probably be the last one I'd shoot!)

Great shots,
Please keep em coming!