Comet C/2012 T5 Bressi

Currently seen in STEREO HI1A imager is Comet C/2012 T5 Bressi, thought to be disintegrating.
Mag estimates varied before it made its closest approach to the sun. It is now leaving but still within 1 Au from the sun.

More Lemmon squeezing...

Update 20130303 - Some better views of Lemmon tail, using the ED80mm and DKM51 and the DSLR with a 300mm lens, both tracking with the telescope.

Better tail views achieved with DMK51AS 99x10sec images

DMK51 and DSLR images

C/2012 F6 Lemmon 30 sec  @ 300mm DSLR

Sum of B/W images again

Update 20130220 - An image of C/2012 F6 via Itelescope T9 90sec exp some imagej work.

Now that I know where C/2012 F6 Lemmon is. I have been zooming in using a DSLR and my Telescope. Unfortunately my night sky is not dark enough to get the long flowing blue Ion tails.

Lemmon closing in on 47 TUC

Trying to catch the comets tail....

Second night getting closer.

 Eta Carina rose high enough in the southern sky to get this processed image...


ETA Carina ..sum of 20sec B/W images

Little green comets

A simulation of a Green coma comet showing a blue Ion tail randomly affected by solar wind.

Sim Green Comet processed pictures....

Finding a Lemmon...

Trying to get some comet images using a DMK51 and a 26mm lens seems like a fun thing to do at the moment. There is some madness in this method, or visa versa. I had tried without success to get comet C/2012 T5 Bressi, it is to faint and my skies are not dark enough. But I put this test image into Flickr astrometry.net, wide FOV bressi it shows that the FOV I have with this lens is about 15x10 degrees. This means I have a big ball park to catch some thing reasonably bright.

The next good night I tried for a brighter comet, the problem being it is on the lower southern limits of my horizon, just above the garage roof. Pointed the camera at the area indicated patch of sky. The result was good. A summed image of 27x20sec frames shows comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon in the right spot, according to CDC charts.

Update - 20130127 - Using Th ED80mm and DMK51 , after some hunting around, as my scope was not properly aligned. I found C/2012 F6 Lemmon as a faint fuzzy. Got 50x19.472sec images with the gain set at 150 and gamma set at 100. A summed image from these frames is here, some ImageJ pixel pushing has been done to bring out the comet. Moving images below..

Big and Small Magellanic's

Worked out how to get the stars to show on DMK51, set the gamma to 150 and adjusted the exposure times to about 10 -20 seconds, Using a 26mm Kern Swiss lens I captured a few frames to expose the Magellanic clouds. Looking good for some of the brighter comets.

update 20130122 - further efforts to push the noise out and stars forward shows 47 Tuc using ED80mm and DMK51. Used imageJ to lower noise values.

Good Mooning....

Good Mooning.... should be said in a French accent...

Trying out a new DMK51 imager with 1600x1200 resolution. Very nice looking at the Moon through a Ed80MM telescope, used a 2x Barlow for the closer imagers. Just summed 100 frames from a recorded avi and used sharpen once in ImageJ. I tried a few stars but the noise level went through the roof, which is a problem as I want to get the current comets, Linear and Lemmon, may be pons-G if I get up early enough...not likely....8)  .

STEREO HI2B Comet C/2012 V4

 

Update - 20121214 - C/2012 V4 has crossed the HI1B imager in images of 20121211. Looks elongated due to is close proximity to the imager and its orbital speed. each HI1B image is a sum of several short duration images.

 



 

Currently in STEREO HI2B imager is a comet showing a dynamic streaming tail.  This is due to interactions with the solar wind, standby for more interactions if a CME passes by.
This is Comet C/2012 V4, it has been said that this is a return of a lost comet D/1827 M1 (Pons-Gambart). But this has yet to be officially confirmed.