Topic: Comet Viewing For Early Risers

[SlowModem]

Story here

[BTimerson]

I've been able to get some pictures of Comet ISON over the past few mornings.  The Nov. 14th picture was created from a stack of 10, 30-second exposures at ISO 3200 through a Canon T3i with a 75-300m lens at 300mm and f/4.5 (wide open).  I mounted the camera on my Meade telescope for tracking.  The Nov. 16 image is the same except I had to shorten the exposure to 20 seconds at ISO 1600 for a 14 image stack. The setting gibbous moon and morning twilight created problems with longer exposures.

The comet is now quite low in morning skies, so a low southeaster horizon will be needed away from city lights. Also, for the next 2 weeks, the waning moon will be in morning skies brightening the background even more. Perihelion with the Sun occurs on Nov. 28th. It remains to be seen if the comet will survive until then or after the passage. I think the distance to the Sun at closest is around 1 million miles. This small distance could gravitationally disrupt the comet.  If it (or some part of it) survives, it will once again be visible in morning skies in early December.
November 14th, shortly after brightening dramatically:  http://www.timerson.net/ISON_JPG1b.jpg
November 16th: http://www.timerson.net/ISON_JPG1a.jpg

Brad Timerson
Newark, NY (near Rochester)

[Randall Kayfes]

From the surrounding stars I saw this morning I would estimate the darn thing under mag 5. which required averted vision for best views even with binoculars.

Brad your listed photo is absolutely fantastic!

[nincehelser]

I've been able to get some pictures of Comet ISON over the past few mornings.  The Nov. 14th picture was created from a stack of 10, 30-second exposures at ISO 3200 through a Canon T3i with a 75-300m lens at 300mm and f/4.5 (wide open).  I mounted the camera on my Meade telescope for tracking.  The Nov. 16 image is the same except I had to shorten the exposure to 20 seconds at ISO 1600 for a 14 image stack. The setting gibbous moon and morning twilight created problems with longer exposures.

I have the *exact* same setup you describe (including a Meade telescope).  Unfortunately when I tried it on the morning of the 18th I got nothing.

ISON was supposed to be very close (perhaps on) Spica.  I got Spica just fine, but could not make out a tail at all.

I had a lot of things working against me, though.  My camera lens kept frosting up, the moonlight was glaring, and there was faint foggy haze in the sky.

I'm going to try again on the 19th.  Hopefully it will be a bit warmer and a bit clearer.   

[BTimerson]

I have the *exact* same setup you describe (including a Meade telescope).  Unfortunately when I tried it on the morning of the 18th I got nothing.

ISON was supposed to be very close (perhaps on) Spica.  I got Spica just fine, but could not make out a tail at all.

I had a lot of things working against me, though.  My camera lens kept frosting up, the moonlight was glaring, and there was faint foggy haze in the sky.

I'm going to try again on the 19th.  Hopefully it will be a bit warmer and a bit clearer.   

First of all, thanks "Kaymann".  I was pretty happy with the results, especially considering they were taken with a variable zoom lens.  Wanted to use a larger, 80mm diameter, f/4, Orion telescope, but didn't get things to work well enough.

"Nincehelser"....  yup, the bright moon will cause many issues from now until perihelion (Nov. 28th).  The comet is now well below Spica. I took shorter exposures at about 135mm to find and then center the comet.  Then switched to 300mm.  The tough part is then getting the focus correct again.  I'm thinking that the best pictures now might be wider field images showing the horizon with the comet.  Adjust ISO and exposure times to limit sky background.

Brad

[Randall Kayfes]

I have nearly the same set-up as the two of you as well.  I use a Canon EF 28-300mm, L IS UM, on my Canon 60D (Spec'd really close to your T3i's) which I mount to a 1980 (yes that is the year) Mead 8" SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain), Multi-Coated Silvered Group with LX Quartz Drive.

Two problems with the Meade. One is the silver tarnishes really fast.  The good news is I called Meade and they agreed a life time guarantee is a life time guarantee and gave me a RMA to have the coatings polished and re-coated with their finest coatings to date.  Not bad after 33 years.  Do not forget the late 70's early 80's was not a proud era for telescope makers as there was too much Halley hype and they could not get them out the door fast enough.

Second problem is the Quartz LX Drive.  Quartz is fine for the timer but the controls are 1980's and really hard to dial in. So once you switch off Quartz and go to the comet's timing good luck.  Also the gears, I gotta believe, are rather large and therefore give way too much slop.  Combine the extra heavy weight of the 28-300mm and you can literally see the teeth in my photographs.  An easy way to test this is to purposely let your stars trail in the opposite direction.  Your trail looks like a flat liner cardiogram with nice gearing.  However with my gearing the cardiogram looks like a healthy patient with a beautiful pattern in the trail.

The good news with the Meade is the legs and wedge are completely solid though also completely electronics free - no Go To on this oldie-goldie.  I do have a friend who owns a 12" SCT Celestron with equatorial mount and when he goes to cemented pier I could end up inheriting his Go To German Equatorial - amen brethren.

And my camera is FINALLY being delivered back from warranty today!!!!!

Now I am just rambling sorry...

[piconut]

Well, after reading the comets from everyone and seeing the nice pictures some are getting, it has prompted me to ask some questions about how to do this myself.  I'm a beginner with a new DSLR (Canon 70D) and I have an ancient Mead 6" Newtonian from the 70's (pictured below).  What is the best method to try to get some images of the comet?   Are you piggybacking your camera on the telescope or are you shooting through the eyepiece, or what?  Please excuse my newbie questions?

Here is my setup:

[nincehelser]

You can do it either way, but at the moment I'm piggy-backing the camera on the telescope.  The real purpose of doing that is to take advantage of the telescope's tracking ability to avoid star trails.

It was a bit warmer and clearer this morning, but I still couldn't capture the tail.  The sky just seems too bright with the moon and the nearness of dawn.  

Given the weather forecasts, I probably won't get another chance until December when ISON starts moving away from the sun.

Hopefully it will brighten and won't fall apart before then.

Oh, there's also a third way to get the picture...attach your camera directly to your scope as if it were a lens.

[nincehelser]

Here's my first deep-space image I took last summer with the same camera setup in piggy-back as described above:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200259540955568&set=a.10200416715404831.1073741831.1364410112&type=3&theater

[racenet]

Here is my setup:

Fixed it for ya.

[SlowModem]

Here's a NASA pic and story:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/21/comet-ison-sun-photo/3671417/

[piconut]

Here are some fascinating statistics about the comet (from a PBS show on it a couple nights ago).  The actual mass part of the comet is only about 3 miles in diameter but the coma or particles ejected around the mass are about 2300 miles across (as it is nearing the sun)!  Holy moly!  This large coma is due to the gravitational and heating effects of the sun and will grow as it moves around the sun.  Hopefully it will re-appear on the other side and we'll have a spectacular show.  There is even the possibility that it will break up into multiple comets (like the Shoemaker-Levy comet that broke up into 21 mini comets that hit Jupiter in 1994).

[nincehelser]

Things may not be looking so good for ISON...

"We are seeing reports online that molecular emission from the comet has fallen dramatically, meanwhile dust production seems to be enormous. What this could indicate is that the nucleus has completely disrupted, releasing an enormous volume of dust while significantly reducing emission rates. Fragmentation or disruption of the nucleus has always been the highest risk factor for this comet so if this has indeed happened then while unfortunate, it would not be a surprise."

http://isoncampaign.org/Present

[Randall Kayfes]

Looked for the past two mornings under nearly perfect skies (excluding the moon) and was not able to bring it out except for the tiniest smudge in a very grainy photo.
If it does not survive the pass around the sun (perihelion) then I am glad I got a view of it earlier.  It did give me an excuse to grab a photo of Mercury and Saturn together.

[chief-david]

This site always has good info

http://shadowandsubstance.com/

[W3DRM]

Thought I would bump this thread and add a link that shows the current speed of comet ISON. As I am writing this, it has accelerated to over 520,000mph and is headed for a final top speed of around 845,000mph tomorrow (11/28/2013 @ 18:37:45 UTC) when it reaches perihelion.

Here's a link that shows the current calculated speed and distance of comet ISON from the sun:

• http://www.cometison2013.co.uk/perihelion-and-distance/

At these speeds and closeness to the Sun, I wonder what the temperature of the comet is? It must be extremely hot.

[SlowModem]

That is a fabulous link!     Thank you for posting.   

[W3DRM]

NASA TV (DirecTV channel 346) now has live coverage of the approach of comet ISON. A Google+ Hangout is also live now with the same coverage. See link below:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03I1B_yrPg&feature=youtu.be

[Old Tele man]

Game over: SUN = 1, ISON = 0    

[W3DRM]

Game over: SUN = 1, ISON = 0    

The NASA Hangout event was great. Too bad it didn't come out as hoped-for. Maybe next time!!! 

[SlowModem]

I figured it would turn out that way.  Too bad.  I guess you have to be in a Klingon Bird of Prey go get that close to the sun and make it out ok.   

[Old Tele man]

I figured it would turn out that way.  Too bad.  I guess you have to be in a Klingon Bird of Prey go get that close to the sun and make it out ok.  

Obviously, ISON and Klingon's don't read Greek mythological history, ie: Icarus and Daedalus getting too close to the sun!

[W3DRM]

Have you seen the latest NASA news? It appears that comet ISON did, in fact, survive its encounter with the Sun!!!

Here's a link to the NASA story and images:

• http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/comet-ison-may-have-survived/index.html

[blizzardof78]

Have you seen the latest NASA news? It appears that comet ISON did, in fact, survive its encounter with the Sun!!!

Here's a link to the NASA story and images:

• http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/comet-ison-may-have-survived/index.html

WOW!! That is some awesome video!!! Thanks for sharing that!!!

Don in Ohio

[W3DRM]

This one even had the "experts" fooled. I watched the Google+ Hangout live video yesterday and everyone seemed to be in agreement that ISON had disintegrated during approach. The videos seemed to support that conclusion BUT, this morning at least a portion of the comet has survived. Now we'll have to wait to see if it will be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye from earth.