Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023 (Alex Varakin)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Camelopardalis (Cam) · Contains: Solar system body or event

Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023, Alex Varakin

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Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

Powered byPixInsight

Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

Last Wednesday I was imaging the comet and in order to maximize the total duration of luminance exposures, I decided to take LRLGLB sequence. I was able to remove stars from RGB using regular rejection method but L was tough. No matter what rejection algorithm I tired, nothing worked. So I decided to try another method, which removes all stars from comet aligned subs and the result was great.Here is the process I used in PixInsight. Step #3 is critical for producing image without star trails.

Stack the channels as usual using WBPP
Comet Align all subs of all channels, while sending output of all of them into the same directory
Run StarExterminator in batch mode on all images of all channels at once. Depending on your CPU or GPU (if you are using CUDA) it may take a while. All starless images will be stored in one directory
Combine star aligned RGB, do PhotometricColorCalibration and note down the coefficients, computed by PhotometricColorCalibration
The image from the previous step contains distorted comet, so we need to extract stars from it using StarExterminator.
Stretch RGB stars image using your favorite stretch method. I used MaskedStretch with target background of 0.003
Use ImageIntegration to integrate starless images, one channel at a time for RGB subs and then combine the channels into RGB
Use ImageIntegration to integrate all starless images which will produce luminance and then stretch it
Combine starless RGB, run BackgroundNeutralization and then ColorCalibration in manual mode, using the coefficients from step 4 and finally stretch it
Combine starless L and RGB using LRGBCombination
Finally, paste the stars from star aligned image into starless LRGB image using formula: ~(~RGB_stars * ~$T)

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
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Star trails
Northern lights
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7124063
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

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Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

Comet ZTF C/2022 E3 from February 1st 2023

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