Comet Holmes and the California, March 4th, 2008

finally stacked all the frames from the night, the early frames provided a lot of fun with gradients:
25x120 seconds, 60x60 seconds, and 4x90seconds as dictated by the sky background
Nikon 105mm f2.5 Q on Griffin mod Canon 350d, piggyback on the classic LX200, unguided, no bad frames..

the sky finally opened a bit, but the seeing was terrible. very hazy, 80% humidity, and significant
sky light from San Diego to the west. can't have everything I guess. Still needs a bit of work on gradients...

acquired and combined in Nebulosity, no darks, no flats. Curves, gradients, and color in Photoshop. The image is cropped
a little to lose the dark edges from stacking so many subs...... and moving the scope a little be accident between sets...lol

and, on the 7th of March, another

same setup as above, but 30x120 seconds in marginal sky, more haze and skylight
it looks like the comet lost its edge in three days, but that was just the difference in seeing...note the fuzzy stars

 

thanks for looking