Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2 amid the clusters, nebulas and dark dust clouds of Taurus and Perseus, on Friday, January 16, 2016. Its long blue ion tail stretches back at least 15°, almost to the open cluster NGC 1647 on Taurus at the left edge. At centre is the Pleiades star cluster, M45; at top right is the red California Nebula, NGC 1499, in Perseus, while the field is filled with the dark dusty lanes of the Taurus Dark Clouds. At left is the red giant star Aldebaran amid the V-shaped Hyades star cluster. I turned the field 90° clockwise from the original orientation, putting the “bottom” of the field (the area farthest south and closest to the horizon) at the left edge. North is to the right here. This perhaps provides a “more natural” orientation to the comet for most people. This is a stack of 10 x 2 minute exposures with the Sigma 50mm lens at f/2.5 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Tracked on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, but not guided. Shot from City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico, Jan 16, 2015.
Star trails showing Orion and Taurus rising behind the rock formations of City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico. I shot this Monday, Dec 29, 2014. The colours of the stars and trails have been boosted in vibrancy to show the colour differences better. Red Betelgeuse is at left, while the pinkish Orion Nebula is at centre. The cyan trail at right is Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2). Light from the waxing quarter Moon illuminates the foreground. A satellite streak is at right of centre. This is a stack of 260 exposures, each 30 seconds at f/2/8 with the 24mm lens and Canon 6D at ISO 400. The foreground is mostly from one frame, the first frame, to preserve shadows. I also added larger star glows around the brighter stars of Orion to make the constellation patern more obvious. It starts just above the rocks at lower left and rises to above centre. The images were stacked with the Advanced Stacker Actions from Star Circle Academy, using the Elastic Stars effect to add point-like stars from the first and last frames.
The Horsehead Nebula, B33, below the Belt of Orion and the star Alnitak, along with the bright Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, to the left of Alnitak. Many other bright reflection nebulas populate the field, such as NGC 2023 just left of the Horsehead itself. The quintuple star system Sigma Orionis is right of the Horsehead. The dark Horsehead is set against the bright streak of the emission nebula IC 434. This is a stack of 10 x 4 minute exposures with the Celestron Rowe-Ackerman Schmidt Astrograph, a 620mm focal length f/2.2 astrograph in hand for review, and using the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 400. Autoguided on the Mach 1 mount. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 28, 2014.
