Hi folks:
Monday sky not as good as Sunday... anywhere did the same thing again.
First set of stack result posted at
http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
Also posted a twice- a day plot of this visitor from now till May 17.. I am
waiting for the Comet to pose in Beehive...
rgds
ykchia
www.ykchia.com
Monday Neat May 10 '04
-
Airconvent
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 5804
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:49 pm
- Location: United Federation of the Planets
Hi Chia,
You have managed to image Q4's tail! The general feedback so far as mostly no tail found in the images. Nice shot...
Oddly, the sky seems to be on par with yesterday's. Dark background with minimal red glow (its still there...I know).
Now that I know where to look for Neat Q4, took another peek today, seeing that the sky is not bad.
This time, I used my 80mm refractor to view it instead. It was exactly where it should be...about 7 deg diagonally top left of Procyon. I expect it to be about 10 deg above Procyon tomorrow, judging from its rate of progress.
Tonight, I was able to make out the tiny pinpoint core amidst all the fuzzy glow around the comet. Again, no tail was obvious. I increased the magnification progressively to around x90 (6.4mm eyepiece) but was not able to resolve the comet any better than at x23 (26mm eyepiece).
Also took the opportunity to point my scope at Jupiter.
I read about how refractors have better contrast as compared with compound scopes due to no central obstruction. I did peer through other refractors such as the revered Takahashis but never really did a comparison until tonight. While I could not get the higher mags possible with my ETX, the refractor was able to display texture on Jupiter's 2 major bands, something I could not see on the ETX. On the ETX, they appear as homogeneous bands. I was impressed by the view my lower-end refractor offered. Maybe I could be tempted to try my hand at manual star hopping?
rich
You have managed to image Q4's tail! The general feedback so far as mostly no tail found in the images. Nice shot...
Oddly, the sky seems to be on par with yesterday's. Dark background with minimal red glow (its still there...I know).
Now that I know where to look for Neat Q4, took another peek today, seeing that the sky is not bad.
This time, I used my 80mm refractor to view it instead. It was exactly where it should be...about 7 deg diagonally top left of Procyon. I expect it to be about 10 deg above Procyon tomorrow, judging from its rate of progress.
Tonight, I was able to make out the tiny pinpoint core amidst all the fuzzy glow around the comet. Again, no tail was obvious. I increased the magnification progressively to around x90 (6.4mm eyepiece) but was not able to resolve the comet any better than at x23 (26mm eyepiece).
Also took the opportunity to point my scope at Jupiter.
I read about how refractors have better contrast as compared with compound scopes due to no central obstruction. I did peer through other refractors such as the revered Takahashis but never really did a comparison until tonight. While I could not get the higher mags possible with my ETX, the refractor was able to display texture on Jupiter's 2 major bands, something I could not see on the ETX. On the ETX, they appear as homogeneous bands. I was impressed by the view my lower-end refractor offered. Maybe I could be tempted to try my hand at manual star hopping?
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
chia sifu,
newbie here. your advice is sought. wonder how you can see the tail.
what scope+eyepiece/magnification combi do you use to see the comet?
last night, we had the 1st non-raining night since i received my scope & first light almost 2weeks ago.
so we were out hunting the comet, without a chart, only knowing the general vicinity.
spent over an hour star-hopping and looking at the planets along the way but couldn't find the comet!
admitting defeat, we consulted s&t online star chart, then finally found the comet pointed at by little doggie's backside.
i used my 8x42 bino, 102mm f/5 with 20mm & 10mm and all i saw was this blob, no tail. my wife took some efforts to convince that it's the comet we were looking for - stars around it are pinpint sharp and there's this big blob too dense to be a cluster. 8)
it wasn't what we expected but heh it's our 1st comet.
so, when is the next one coming?
newbie here. your advice is sought. wonder how you can see the tail.
what scope+eyepiece/magnification combi do you use to see the comet?
last night, we had the 1st non-raining night since i received my scope & first light almost 2weeks ago.
so we were out hunting the comet, without a chart, only knowing the general vicinity.
spent over an hour star-hopping and looking at the planets along the way but couldn't find the comet!
admitting defeat, we consulted s&t online star chart, then finally found the comet pointed at by little doggie's backside.
i used my 8x42 bino, 102mm f/5 with 20mm & 10mm and all i saw was this blob, no tail. my wife took some efforts to convince that it's the comet we were looking for - stars around it are pinpint sharp and there's this big blob too dense to be a cluster. 8)
it wasn't what we expected but heh it's our 1st comet.
so, when is the next one coming?
Hi KK/ Ric and folks:
No magic actually. No telescopes are involved since we need as much FOV we can manage to show the tail. It is a simple video setup. I am using a Mintron video camera 1/2" b/w ccd and attached to a 100mm lens sitting on a fixed tripod. Once in the field I just let the tape run.. stop and start if i want to change the position.. or when big clouds rolling in. Some times getting bored and look else where... The electronic finder on the same tripod helps to find the comet. As long as you roughtly know where is the comet, no map is required. LM is easily 6+ -9+ for in 12x15 degree FOV .. once located the comet I simply switch over to the 100m ..
The tail was easy visible ( at least a small portion of it) from the miniTV screen and the Sony video walkman LCD screen. Imaging doing this in a dark site....
Post processing is done by raw brute force - i imported the DV AVI via a firewire to a old 1 GHz pc - a couple of minutes is enough - harddisk space is dirt cheap.. and later obtained the bmp sequences in Premiere ... then I stringed/aligned the sequences in Registrax.... took a while in the old pc..
Will be doing this every nite when the sky is clear in ccd..
rgds
ykchia
No magic actually. No telescopes are involved since we need as much FOV we can manage to show the tail. It is a simple video setup. I am using a Mintron video camera 1/2" b/w ccd and attached to a 100mm lens sitting on a fixed tripod. Once in the field I just let the tape run.. stop and start if i want to change the position.. or when big clouds rolling in. Some times getting bored and look else where... The electronic finder on the same tripod helps to find the comet. As long as you roughtly know where is the comet, no map is required. LM is easily 6+ -9+ for in 12x15 degree FOV .. once located the comet I simply switch over to the 100m ..
The tail was easy visible ( at least a small portion of it) from the miniTV screen and the Sony video walkman LCD screen. Imaging doing this in a dark site....
Post processing is done by raw brute force - i imported the DV AVI via a firewire to a old 1 GHz pc - a couple of minutes is enough - harddisk space is dirt cheap.. and later obtained the bmp sequences in Premiere ... then I stringed/aligned the sequences in Registrax.... took a while in the old pc..
Will be doing this every nite when the sky is clear in ccd..
rgds
ykchia
-
weixing
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 4708
- Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:22 am
- Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
- Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster
Hi,No magic actually.
I agree that no magic, but I think most of us can't afford your Mintron video camera.. hee hee
By the way, how much did you pay for that Mintron video camera and where did you get it from.
Have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." 
last time when I wanna sell that mintron camera cheap cheap, nobody wanna buy....weixing wrote:Hi,No magic actually.
I agree that no magic, but I think most of us can't afford your Mintron video camera.. hee hee
By the way, how much did you pay for that Mintron video camera and where did you get it from.
Have a nice day.
Unless YK has a good lobang, I bought mine from trifid optics, Malaysia. Still cheaper than buying straight from US and shipping from MY is quite negligable for that camera.
HI VinSnr:
I remembered by the time I called you the camera is already sold off to oversea buyer.. top of my head I can't remembered how much I paid for it - I remember I got it $200+ cheaper than trifid...
I will have to search for the vendor name in S'pore where i got most of my watec-90H, Neptune 100N and fast video lens.. Will post on this info next time..
Did any of u bother with Neat - sky was bad bad bad but I tried again... I saw the comet using 7x50s around 8:15pm and decided to try out anyway.
So Tuesday pic at same link again..
http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
rgds
ykchia
I remembered by the time I called you the camera is already sold off to oversea buyer.. top of my head I can't remembered how much I paid for it - I remember I got it $200+ cheaper than trifid...
I will have to search for the vendor name in S'pore where i got most of my watec-90H, Neptune 100N and fast video lens.. Will post on this info next time..
Did any of u bother with Neat - sky was bad bad bad but I tried again... I saw the comet using 7x50s around 8:15pm and decided to try out anyway.
So Tuesday pic at same link again..
http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
rgds
ykchia
Hi folks:
Tonite May 12 Comet /2001 Neat Q4 pic... I hv to wait for the clouds to disperse...before getting a relatively ok sky.
Just check the map - Neat will skim close to Beehive...but not through it.
Same link http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
but process using trialware Astrovideo to grab DV direct - FITs->Registrax>PS
rgds
ykchia
Tonite May 12 Comet /2001 Neat Q4 pic... I hv to wait for the clouds to disperse...before getting a relatively ok sky.
Just check the map - Neat will skim close to Beehive...but not through it.
Same link http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
but process using trialware Astrovideo to grab DV direct - FITs->Registrax>PS
rgds
ykchia
-
Airconvent
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 5804
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:49 pm
- Location: United Federation of the Planets
Hi YK,ykchia wrote:Hi folks:
Tonite May 12 Comet /2001 Neat Q4 pic... I hv to wait for the clouds to disperse...before getting a relatively ok sky.
Just check the map - Neat will skim close to Beehive...but not through it.
Same link http://www.ykchia.com/southern_sky_iii.htm
but process using trialware Astrovideo to grab DV direct - FITs->Registrax>PS
rgds
ykchia
This looks like an ongoing daily serial !
I took a peep just now but seeing not very good today. I barely made her out as she's very dim tonight. Currently about 10 deg above Procyon at at around her 1 o'clock position.
I'm also curious to wonder how this comet compares with Hale Bopp since I never really saw any of the "great" comets.
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets