The comet processed correctly at last!

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Click twice to see the enlarged image. This is the data from Saturday night, when the sky was clearer and the comet was a little higher after twilight (less ambient sunlight) and moonlight a little less. And I finally managed to slog through the very complex comet processing the grownups use! I’ll redo the data from the 15th, when the anti-tail showed better, but there was more ambient light and some thin, high clouds so it may not come out this clear – we’ll see. Skies look good tonight for one more try, FWIW. (Why not…)

Specific Feedback

All comments welcome!

Technical Details

Acquisition of about half an hour of tracked 30-sec exposures with my astro rig. About 7 hours of processing in PixInsight following the very complex procedure outlined by Adam Block in his Comet Academy tutorials – which are more happenings than tutorials. Here’s screenshot of one of the procedures running – this is maybe 2% of a running screen detailing what it is doing.

And here is a Process window – one of maybe 15-20 that are run in sequence to get the final result. 'Nuff said… I think I have brain damage from figuring this out.


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1 Like

Congratulations, Diane, on an outstanding image. I went out last night under darker skies and took another series of images. I haven’t started processing them, yet.

Keep us posted!! This one doesn’t seem to have a very exciting structure, compared to some others I’ve seen. I wonder if it will change? Pons-Brooks (in March) had fascinating structure in the tail, and it changed from night to night. Your astro rig would be amazing to get detail near the head as it moves away.

Dan Bartlett’s Astrobin page gives a glance at some of the variable appearance of comets:

WOW. That’s pretty impressive.

I always like my critiques to be fresh and unique, so I’ll add “What @joaoquintela said.” :wink:

Seriously, the technical level you all are working at is so impressive, and the results are beautiful. Congrats on working your way through what sounds like a challenging learning curve.