[BAA Comets] 2014Q2 AVI from last night

[Peter Carson]

Nick,
Your timelapse shows what I find fascinating about comets. That is how the 
tail appearance can change over such short time periods. I guess it 
demonstrates how "windy" it is out there in the solar system!!
Fingers crossed for a major tail disconnection event before the comet sets.
I'll be interested in anything you can come up with that can speed up the 
processing and compilation of a timelapse. I find its the processing of 
individual frames so the brightness levels are consistent that is most 
difficult. When its done well its what makes the final appearance of a 
timelapse look more "polished".
I've taken 20 images of 2014Q2 this evening with my 315mm reflector at f5.6 
that I intend to compile into a 4 pane mosaic that should capture about 2 
degrees of the tail at a good level of detail. It should be in the archive a 
day or so.
Peter

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick James" <ndj at nickdjames.com>
To: "BAA Comets discussion list" <comets-disc at britastro.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2015 11:56 PM
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] 2014Q2 AVI from last night


> Peter,
>
> Very nice timelapse. I can see we are going to need to include videos in 
> the section archive! I'll work on getting that done ASAP.
>
> I've been doing something similar but have been writing some scripts to 
> make things automatic since I have having to do things manually. Tonight I 
> have been imaging with the same instrument since 1800UT and it is still 
> going. My timelapse so far is here:
>
> http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/2015/2014q2_20150118_ndj.gif
>
> Each frame is 10x120s with a FoV of 1.9x1.0 deg, N up. I'm using a William 
> Optics Megrez 72 refractor (430mm FL, f/5.6) and an SXVR-H18 CCD camera.
>
> Not much going on with that ion tail tonight but it is still waving around 
> in the solar breeze. I'm hoping for a decent disconnection event and a 
> long, clear night...
>
> Nick.
>
>> Inspired by images of tail structure changes in comet 2014Q2 I imaged the 
>> comet for 2 hours last night.
>> I took 24no x 300 second exposures using a 100mm f5.4 refractor and 
>> ST8300 CCd between 20.32hrs and 22.33hrs.
>> I stacked them in groups of 3 and compiled them into an 8 frame AVI.
>> The AVI shows some tail ray motion, (together with passing light cloud!)
>> The images where calibrated, contrast stretched and aligned but not 
>> processed in any other way.
>> North is up and the field of view is approximately 2 degrees wide.
>> See the AVI here http://www.astromania.co.uk/2014q2_lovejoy_video.htm
>> I will stack and process some of the images for the Section image 
>> archive.
>>
>> The sky was slightly milky here in SE Essex last night but I'm convinced 
>> I could just detect about a degree of tail in 11x80 binos. My observing 
>> site is an urban area and light polluted.
>>
>> Peter Carson
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