2014 October 19: In order to capture this significant astronomical event, I booked a session on iTelescope T31 - located at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. At the time (09:52 UT) the comet was just 20.5 arc minutes from the dazzling planet Mars. The huge difference in apparent magnitudes of the two bodies (approximately 10,000) meant I had to compromise on exposure times. The accompanying LRGB image was processed using the ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator and Photoshop 7 and CS2. Equipment details: Planewave 20" CDK @ f4.4 and FLI-PL09000 CCD camera, Planewave Ascension 200HR mount, Astrodon E-series filters. L = 2 x 120 Seconds (bin 1); RGB = 120 Seconds per filter (bin 2) |
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