Comet Leonard - 28th December

[scribbly]

Hi,
I am late to the "show" posting my Comet Leonard image from 28th December (being new I stuffed up my login by trying to include an email as my user name). I am pretty excited, as this is my first comet image that I have manged to capture a tail.

I was lucky to have a few days at my friend's Joe @OzEclipse in central west NSW, and have the chance to observe (various scopes) and image the comet in wonderful bortle 1/2 skies. To my "untrained" eye, using averted vision, I estimate that I could see a little more than 30 arcsecs of the tail. Quite amazing in Joe's 9x63 binos, with 4-5 degrees of tail visible.

My image taken with Canon EOS-RP, Canon 300mm F4 L series lens, ~45 x 30 second subs @ F4 and ISO 3200, tracked/unguided on a G11. Stacked in DSS. Processed in PS, by developing a detailed luminance mask of the comet, and using the mask to bring out the detail of the tail whilst not affecting the remainder of the image. Noting the the comet was not moving significantly against the background sky, I did not process the stars and comet separately (as I believe many folk do).

Thanks Joe for a great few days.

[yobbo89]

a lovely image!

[SkyHiker]

Very well done, thanks for sharing

[Makuser]

Hello Scribbly. A beautiful Comet Leonard image from you using your Canon EOS-RP camera and Canon 300mm F4 lens. You caught a nice head and the fantastic long and detailed tail. Thanks for sharing this fine capture with us on here Scribbly as it was a pleasure to view.

[messier 111]

superb take , thx .

[Gordon]

Congratulations Phil on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!

app.php/article/1-12-2022-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

[KathyNS]

Welcome to the forum, Scribbly. You are off to a great start with that fantastic image of Comet Leonard. It is definitely worthy of APOD status. Congratulations!

[XCalRocketMan]

Great shot. Thanks for posting.

[scribbly]

Thank you to one & all for your encouraging feedback. The APOD is appreciated :-)
Biggest thanks to Joe @OzEclipse for his hospitality and access to his wonderful dark skies.

Phil

[OzEclipse]

Phil,

Pleasure as always having you and my friend Felicity there that week. There is a typo in your report, the naked eye comet tail length we observed was about 1/2 degree or 30 arc mins not arc seconds.

Congratulations on the APOD. Welcome to the APOD club.

You should be able to edit that for a couple of days.

Joe.

[BABOafrica]

Hi,
I am late to the "show" posting my Comet Leonard image from 28th December (being new I stuffed up my login by trying to include an email as my user name). I am pretty excited, as this is my first comet image that I have manged to capture a tail.

yes, you nailed that one!

Congrats on the award.

BABO