A good image Kieran, I had similar problems with the image processing.
I had a good look at this comet through the 12" tonight and decided to put the canon on the back of the scope and try get a pic or 2.

This is 300k, so sorry in advance to our dial up friends.

farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/1819414518_6b466f7bb5_o.jpg

This was a 20 x 2 min exposure run (iso 800) with 3 discarded so 17 were stacked in registax, the images were full resolution for the camera and brought down to a more manageable size after processing was done.
You can see a gap in the star trails, that is where the discarded pics were. This is a full FOV image with the canon+12", I even used a dark frame. The central point was clearly seen as was the coma in this pic.
There is the makings of a tail to the lower right as the outline becomes diffuse compared to the upper left.
This was a very tough image to process without getting the onion effect gradients appearing in the coma, I don't know if you see that effect with your monitor, the comet is fairly smooth on my monitor, although the jpeg compression does put very faint colour ovals in there. The bmp version of the image was silky smooth.

All the same, I've never seen a comet quite like this one.!

Mike,
I was going to build a 12'' Dob.
But then we got to working on the clubs 12''.
We are gonna restore it fully and when she's done it'll
be an awesome piece of kit.

Ah now Frank, don't be thinking of such "small" numbers.

Dave,
definitely a hint of a tail in your image directly connected to the nucleus.

Seanie.

[img size=320]C:\Documents and Settings\Henk\Bureaublad\HOLMES\DSC_0198HOLMES2-HNplus-moon.jpg[/img]


Hello, i am new here and wanted to show my picture of 17/p

i hope i do things right to get this picture here

Henk

it does not seem to work this way

henk

it does not seem to work this way

henk

Hi Henk,

I'm afraid not, you have to upload the photo somewhere onto the web and then include the URL inside the img tags. I think a lot of people here use Flickr.

Hope that helps,

Bart.

This might have already been asked in earlier pages but I haven't read them and there's also probably an obvious answer but how come there's no tail to the comet? I also thought comets had tails.

I did manage to see Holmes last night through the breaks in the cloud and it's quite easy to find even visible to the naked eye but I couldn't see a tail even if there is one there.


As I said the answers probably obvious but not in my case

This might have already been asked in earlier pages but I haven't read them and there's also probably an obvious answer but how come there's no tail to the comet? I also thought comets had tails.

I did manage to see Holmes last night through the breaks in the cloud and it's quite easy to find even visible to the naked eye but I couldn't see a tail even if there is one there.


As I said the answers probably obvious but not in my case

Couple of relevant points:

1) Comets get tails as they come close to the sun, this one is a long way out
2) Even if it does have a small tail it would be pointing away from us so we wouldn't see it

Bart.

I think Daves image shows a tail quite clearly if you can get your head around the orientation. The bright area to the right is the tail, just thats its oriented away from us. The large halo is a result of the outgassing and that is tending to hide the part of the tail that we can see.
Just my 2c.

Just got my first look at the comet last night with a pair of binoculars. I couldn't believe how bright it was, i could see it as bright as any star in that region.

Cant wait to see it through the telescope.

I got a window of clarity this evening - took a good few exposures including this stack of 6 lights and five darks - there's all sorts wrong with this, not the least of which being that it's made from jpgs as I haven't yet converted the RAWs down to TIFF for better stacking, but it shows a central coma that is sharper one side than the other and an extended coma that is the same shape - I hesitate to call it a "tail" as such!



Got some more detailed stuff that I'll process later!

http://lh5.google.com/H.Nieborg/RyuS7ImlneI/AAAAAAAAACk/xL_XDBdRSNs/DSC_0198HOLMES2-HNplus-moon.jpg?imgmax=720

see if this works

henk

http://lh5.google.com/H.Nieborg/RyuS7ImlneI/AAAAAAAAACk/xL_XDBdRSNs/DSC_0198HOLMES2-HNplus-moon.jpg?imgmax=720
see if this works

henk

lh5.google.com/H.Nieborg/RyuS7ImlneI/AAA...-moon.jpg?imgmax=720
It works as a link for download.
An interesting shot as you have moon in there for scale.

ok dave;
thank's i still try to get my picture here
and yes i put the moon in for comparisson of its sise
i just made a new acount at picasa so i have a place on the net for my pictures but the pictures are made smaller
BTW this picture was 3000x2000
it is unedited exept for the inserted moon
shot on 30 oktober 23:00 local time (veendam, the netherlands)

6 inch newton, lxd75, nikon D70, 800 asa,30 seconds
body straight on the focusser so just 2 mirrors in the optics

and thanks Bart for the hint

Henk

this wil be the big file then 2.8 Mbytes

picasaweb.google.com/H.Nieborg/Astrofoto...#5128368559220956658

This single image taken earlier this evening shows jets of material being ejected from the nucleus towards the tail - well that's how it looks to me

Got meself together to try catch holmes with the CGE11 inch, last night(Thurs, 1st Nov.). This is a stack of about 84 images ranging from 5 sec to 20 secs at ISO1600, Canon 350D at Prime Focus, using a 6.3 focal reducer. Stacked in DSS.



Taken from cherrymount, Waterford................ Ammmazziiiingggg.....this week has been my very first time actually imaging a comet on over our skies!!!! I never thought I would ever image one!!

how frustrating this is , this whole week just clowds and clowds and haze or what ever.......
just on the moment something interesting is going on...


beautifull pictures paul and wellbuttie

henk

Right now the comet is looking huge. I noticed it is almost filling the FOV in my 8mm eyepiece. Two days ago it filled approx 40% of the same area
with the same eyepiece.

Go out an look

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society

Just got a couple of shots this evening before cloud rolled in. 4 images stacked ISO100, 30 sec, Canon 350D and Celestron 102SLT.



Heres a series - ongoing with same exposure and settings:

26th Oct:


28th Oct:


2nd Nov:


I think the tail is now becoming more apparent.

Finished for the night, been out 3 hours and clouds are just starting to role in here. Saw comet 17p holmes again to night but trough the telescope this time and looks really cool.

Still gob-smacked at how bright it is for a comet.

Comet is even bigger than before. Got a look through the 16" just now and it is definitely starting to look more like a "typical" comet. One side appears quite fuzzy whilst the other side is sharp and more defined. Could also see faint signs of a tail for approx the same length as the diameter of the main comet itself.
While out observing, got great views of Mars. Polar cap clearly visible as were some of the darker regions on the planet.
Moon was also great. Copernicus was particularly nice, looking deep into the crater centre and seeing the two central peaks.
Also saw the six stars of the trapezium in the centre of M42. Even at 200x, the central region of M42's nebula showed a very obvious mottled effect.

i just made a new acount at picasa so i have a place on the net for my pictures but the pictures are made smaller
shot on 30 oktober 23:00 local time (veendam, the netherlands)

picasaweb.google.com/H.Nieborg/Astrofoto...#5128368559220956658

Nice image! Did I see another recent image from someone else that showed the earth to scale? Or did I dream it...

Dave

Fine image Henk. Nice comparison in scale.

BTW, welcome to the website. Hope you have fun here.

Here's a stack from yesterday evening which I've inverted for clarity - definite tail-like stuff in this one....



This is the same frame - I've done as much as I can here to keep detail at all levels - this is a huge dynamic range compressed into a jpeg....



And here's a close-up...

The negative really shows it up very well Paul.