Comet Q2/Lovejoy inner coma details – January 11, 2015

While testing my old 8″ F/5 Newtonian’s new look (meaning a lot of modifications) together with my wife, I got a brief chance at observing and imaging comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) just before the clouds rolled in.

This time, since I was not very far from home (just 5km South), and that usually means a lot of light pollution, I could only image the inner tail of the comet and the general aspect of the coma, so no long-time exposures.

But, since I’ve wanted to get the best out of the images, I’ve processed and re-processed the image for a few hours (around 3) and got a view showing the some of the inner jets present in the coma.

The equipment used for this session: Homemade 200mm F/5 Newtonian with SkyWatcher optics, Baader MPCC, Canon 550D at ISO 1600, 27 frames each a 30 seconds shot. The time of acquisition was 16:30-17:10 U.T., with only some frames selected from the initial 45.

The first image shows a processed image with only slightly processed inner-coma details. The details inside the coma are the result of applying the Larson-Sekanina filter with a value of 30 degrees.

The second result, a bit over-processed, shows the inner details a bit better, but at the risk of a not so natural image:

A grayscale version of the above:

And a comparison image showing the final processed image together with the Larson-Sekanina filtered image. The L-S image was processed by removing the stars and increasing the contrast. The L-S inset is at the same scale as the final image, so a direct comparison of the actual filaments present in the inner coma is possible.

And, a short animation showing the rapid movement of the comet (and the inner part of the tail) moving among the stars:

Very soon I will be again under the darker Comana Skies, so hopefully better images will be posted on this blog.

Max