Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Sucker hole astronomy - more Comet Lulin.

I was flat on my back last night watching a few commercial zapped shows recorded on my MythTV (I'll have to post an entry on this system sometime, it's awesome) last night. Almost to the point of being a bit too cozy next to the fire and falling asleep. I got up to grab a glass of chocolate milk and did a peek outside out of habit. CLEAR!
I grabbed my Canon camera, and headed out back to boot up the observatory and open the roof. I managed about 45 minutes before the sky slammed shut again on me at about 11:20pm. I got 11 good images of Lulin and tried a different method of flat frames. This time I didn't twist the camera and screw up everything. My flat field with the dust images, fit exactly on my light images, subtracted the annoying blobs, and I got some shots that I'm happy with finally. No international processing effort needed this time. The comet was about 6.4 magnitude and is fading about .2 magnitude each night now as it speeds away from Earth.
Another thing I'll add about the weather here, I'll sometimes look out in the early evening and see it's totally clouded over. I'll spend the evening watching a movie then look out again just before going to bed only to see it totally clear. Frustrating!
Here is what a good day in Seattle looks like. This is the view from my office window in Seattle. This is usually followed by clouds after sunset....
(click on the images for full sized view)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Nice picture. Congrats

You need a skylight right above where you sit to watch TV. Then you can see if it clears up without getting up.

darwin-t