Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Comet 103P/Hartley near M35
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8M1cJ8ldnPEdsaFLTgB-KPgPFf4GeAJdF8-zN5GZeJxHhT9FIPTwye4FUlFi_QBU7Y6CrTMYbWctNqno3Q3IyS7chsMw5J3DmfxBcsjEqMvYURiGP_B8WJILTGUgvP-Z_q3L/s320/103P_M35_26-10-10.png)
The comet appears as multiple images as this is a stack of 3 x 60 second exposures in Global Rent a Scope GRAS 14 and stacked in Image J using Z projection of maximum intensity and a bit of contrast fiddling. Two series of exposures was made, one on the comet and one on M35, the composed images were made into a mosaic using the GIMP, with layers, and using a little bit of rotation to get the star images aligned.
The images are a bit rubbish as a) the Moon was pretty close and b) the cloud that I thought had gone away hadn't (the streamers in the comet image isn't a nebula). Later I'll try and match the background better, maybe eliminate an image from the stack to see if can get it better.
UPDATE: Rolando Ligustri does it much much better, his stunning image is here.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTwuJc8iuBAdGuXG8NBCs5Kxpt9MoGOiKoY8rc_Ej6ORtxR5adyBmuva9aDRd-0nK61hygQEvSVJmyaDMN78Rn-ROZb2gz7gqBci7um6hDOAgvawkmzmXWyOQbheLnAumDiJn2/s320/103PHartley_26-10-10_Chart.jpg)
Labels: astrophotography, comets, Global Rent-a-Scope