Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Part of the constellation Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Talitha (ιUMa)  ·  The star 15UMa  ·  The star 18UMa  ·  The star 23UMa  ·  The star 27Lyn  ·  The star Dnoces  ·  The star Muscida (οUMa)  ·  The star κUMa  ·  The star π2UMa  ·  The star σ1UMa  ·  The star τUMa
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer), AlenK
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer)
Powered byPixInsight

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer)

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer), AlenK
Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer)
Powered byPixInsight

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This is a preliminary edit using a a total of ten minutes of exposure. I have over 45 minutes worth of sub-exposures from that night but in order to use them I will need to stack on the comet, not the stars in order to avoid excessive blurring of the comet due to the comet's relative motion. (Some blurring is noticeable even in 10 minutes.) Sidereal tracking was accomplished using Astrotracer (built in to the camera), with the camera mounted directly on a tripod. The lens was stopped down to f/2.8.

The night was very warm, so the thermal noise was high. Minimal noise reduction has been applied; more will be needed even after using the full stack. I did not use darks or flats but I found that bias frames did help. This is a modest crop from the full APS-C frame, done to remove some edge artifacts from stacking. The ion tail extends beyond the frame even before the crop, which means it was likely over 25 degrees long.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, July 17, 2020: Preliminary edit (Astrotracer), AlenK