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Astrophotography Comet

Astrophoto: Comet Leonard – C/2021 A1 – 12/21

Comet Leonard C/2021 A1 was my first comet. Here is the 2023 reprocessed version with data from 2021.

The Session-Story of Comet Leonard

I was looking for the Comet Leonard to come for several months. The passthrough of the comet on Messier 3 was noted in my calender. But it was cloudy that night.

My alarm clock woke me up each night around 3am to 4am to check the weather, especially the clouds. No luck at all and i ran out of time/days.

On december the 8th there was a promising weather report for the early morning hours of the next day in the 160km distanced Jülich, where i have a nice possiblility to take photos.

So, i had to organise some things:

  • The spot to build up the equipment.
  • A flexiday for the 9th.
  • Load all the equipment into the car (for the 1st time).

The alarmclock rang at 3:00am, i drunk a coffee and started driving at about 3:20am.

At 5:30am the equipment was all build up and I started shooting. I still had a bit more then 1 hour untill sunrise.

Here the final Astrophoto in high resolution on Flickr:

Comet Leonard C/2021A1

Lessons Learned – Comet Leonard

The comet C2021 A1 Leonard was the 1st comet that I saw through my telescope. One thing i learned is: It’s worth the effort. I am really happy, that i did not waste my time with trying to be perfect this morning. It was important to get started and take photos without taking things too serious. Otherwise there was a risk to run out of time.

And one important thing i learned while trying to post process the material: Deep Sky Stacker got a mode to stack comets.

Same data – advanced processing

Technical overview

TelescopeVIXEN ED80sf
Focal Length600mm
Aperture ratio7.5
Erecting LenseTSFlat2
FilterOptolong UV/IR Cut 2″
MountSkywatcher HEQ-5
Goto-ControlEKOS
Mount ControlINDI
Guiding Scope Focal Length162 mm
Guiding Camera Chip4.8mm x 3.6mm, 8bit
Guiding Camera Resolution1280×960
Guiding SoftwareEKOS, INDI
Dithering3 pixel every 5th frame
CameraCANON EOS M100(a)
Methodfocal projection
Camera ControlEKOS, INDI, Gphoto2
Photography Date12/09/2021
Exposure-Time Lights78x30s
SensitivityISO 800
CalibrationframesFlats, Bias
Processing Date12/09/2021
Reprocessing Date12/17/2023
Stacking, IntegrationDeep Sky Stacker
Post Processing SoftwareAffinity Photo
Image EditingAffinity Photo
Reprosessing SoftwarePixInsight
Capture PlaceLinnich, Germany
LightpollutionBortle 4
Scattered lightweak

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