This is an image that I took two nights ago with the William Optics 105mm refractor. It's a combination of 12 30-second luminance images, plus 12 each 60-second red, green, and blue images.
It was really a challenge to try to make the color combination "look" correct on this one. I'm not quite satisfied with this result but I'm weary of messing with it so I think I'll stop here. The neat thing is that you can see some detail, for example there appears to be an annulus around the coma (this is the result of the spherical arrangement of the shell, it's not really thicker on the outside. The multicolored streaks are stars, which elongated because the comet was moving as the images were taken. A larger version of this image can be seen by clicking here.
The comet has been generating a huge amount of interest among amateurs over the past week and a half. Today's APOD was of the comet and there are pictures flowing from telescopes everywhere. People are sketching it, and observing it through eyepieces and binoculars, as well as the naked eye. I checked it out again tonight naked eye and it's still a bright star-like beacon near Mirfak (Alpha Persei).
No comments:
Post a Comment