Imaged Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on the morning of January 27, 2023. My second imaging session and next pass at comet image processing folding in all I learned from the first session.
Imaged with Astrotech AT60 at F/4.8 (288 mm focal length) using Astrotech ATRF60 field flattener/0.8x reducer, UVIRcut filter, and full spectrum modified Nikon D5300. Total integration time of ~20 minutes from 22 subs at ISO200 x 60 sec.
Pre-processed using Pixinsight's weighted batch pre-processing script (WBPP) to perform calibration, debayering, registration.
Post-processed using PixInsight:
- Generated starless images using StarXTerminator on the calibrated & registered subs
- Generated master image for comet: Comet aligned the starless subs using the comet alignment process, and used the integration process to generate the starless comet master.
- Generated master image for stars: Applied the comet alignment process in subtract mode to the original registered subs (with stars) using the starless comet master for the subtract operand image. This generates comet aligned stars only images which I integrated to create stars only master.
- Combined the starless comet master and stars only master using the pixelmath process (stars only master + 2x comet master).
- Standard post-processing flow in Pixinsight: background removal using ABE, spcc, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, masked stretch, generalized hyperbolic stretch, curves transformation, and HDR transformation.
Original version: Comet + Stars (comet aligned)
Rev B: starless comet master
Rev C: comet aligned image with trailed stars
Rev D: Luminance from (Comet+Stars) image
Rev E: Inverted luminance from (Comet+Stars) image
Rev F: Animated GIF generated from the stars aligned images show the motion of the comet relative to the stars over 20 minutes
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