Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2, on January 11, 2015, shot through the TMB 92mm apo refractor, at f/4.4 for a field of about 4 x 3 degrees. This is a stack of 4 x 2 minute exposures at ISO 3200 with the Canon 6D. Shot from near Silver City, New Mexico.
Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) as it appeared Saturday night, January 10, 2015 as it was moving north into Taurus. Here is it west of the Hyades and Aldebaran (at left) and below the Pleiades (at upper left). The comet was easy to see naked eye from a dark site though it was not obvious as a comet - it appeared as a fuzzy star. The ion tail here was barely visible in binoculars. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures with the 35mm at f/2 on the Canon 60Da at ISO 1600. Tracked on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer. Shot from the City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico. Some high clouds were drifting through, adding some fuzzy patches to the sky. However, the dark patch at the left edge is cosmic — that is part of the dark Taurus dust clouds.
Comet Lovejoy on January 6, 2014, shot though a telescope for a close-up view with a field of rouhgly 4 x 3 degrees. The green coma and blue ion tail are prominent. The tail was just barely visible through binoculars. I shot these frames betwen end of twilight at 6:30 pm and moonrise at 7;15 pm. The comet was a day before its closest approach to Earth. Technical — I shot the images through the TMB 92mm refractor at f/4.4 for a roughly 400mm focal length, with the Canon 6D at ISO 1600 for a stack of 4 x 2 minute exposures, blended with Mean combine mode for noise reduction. The mount was guided on the comet head using the Orion Starshoot autoguider aand Borg 50mm guidescope controlled by PHD Guiding. Thus the slightly trailed stars.
