Forgot to mention the camera settings in the video: 2 sec., f/4, ISO1600 (I used 17 * 2" in the PS Stack) Keep in mind with these settings that the comet will be higher and higher in the Western sky this month, but also dimmer, so longer exposures and tracking will be called for soon :)
During stacking, when you're manually aligning, you start by aligning layer 2 to layer 1, and then turn opacity of both up, and align layer 3 to layer 2. A better approach would be to turn off the visibility of layer 2 and align layer 3 to the same layer (1) that you aligned layer 2 to. Introduces less errors, since you're always referencing the same static layer, as opposed to a potentially moving target as the small errors from every stack start adding up.
I remember what a huge event Hailey’s Comet was back in 1986. Our school even arranged field trips to the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Michigan where I got my first views of the universe in the planetarium . My mind was blown at the whole experience as a kid in the 6th grade. It left a lasting impression and triggered my love for astronomy/astrophotography. Thank you Hailey’s
Hey Nico!! - I really loved the little adventure at the start of this mate, and I just want to say the shot starting around 2:50 was evocative, it really stirred up a feeling of anticipation and wonder as the last remnants of sunlight gave way to the darkness of space, superb! 🙂 Tremendous work as always my friend!
Hey Nico, nice adventure and catch! I also used the 135mm (Samyang version) for one set which I turned into a timelapse and my AT60ED for my second set that I'm stacking now. Your end result is really nice! Clear skies!
Nice job Nico. I also found it pretty easy Saturday night. I was still “in the city” so it wasn’t super bright. But, it’s there. We’ll see if it holds together over the next few weeks.
I used Sequator to stack my image. It wroked pretty good. Also I think Im seeing Comet 13P Olbers just passed the tail of ATLAS. Love your videos. thanks for sharing
I saw it with naked eye on Sunday Oct 13, looking over San Francisco Bay from Berkeley. Small hill (50 ft). Got photographs. 30 exposures, 1/10 sec, F2.8, 180mm. Sony A7 IV. I hear you about "thrill of the hunt". I was looking too close to Venus. The comet was a full hand width away (spread). Also -- the satellites were VERY prevalent. 4 to 6 per set of exposures. I hand-deleted them on each exposure since they were a dot on each. Aligning stacks -- I aligned to background stars rather than the comet itself. Much more precise. Also set the layer to "Difference" while aligning, which also allows more precision. Once aligned, set layer to "Luminance, if lighter" in GIMP
Nice view up there. Appreciate the processing, I didn't realize you could drag the layers to manually align like that. I like your sunset result, it's a nice change of pace. Hoping for clear skies asap.
Nice, I got a quick camera phone image, but am hoping the weather on Wednesday will let me get out with my DSLR. I was also thinking of the Rokinon 135 so I'm grateful you already did the hard work of figuring out the exposure for me !
Hey, Nico! Thanks for this overview of your experience. At the same latitude here in NH and was able to capture A3 just above the treeline of a pasture. It was pretty special. Can I ask where you hiked? Shooting from a mountaintop is still on my list of things to try.
I was able to get a good shot of the comet at dawn on October 02 from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico! It was visible to the eye but popped much better with the gopro on a long exposure (5 seconds f/2.5 [fixed] iso 1600)
nice! i did this for the eclipse, Siril lets you manually register images off of a reference image with an overlay, i used it to register images off of the prominences for the darkest exposures, and off of stars for the longer exposures. i would’ve done it in photoshop just like this too, except photoshop uses up so much more RAM and processing power than Siril that it would’ve crashed a dozen times over. So for those people stacking images of this comet, try it in Siril as well!
Good job Nico. I lucked out - twice - last week in trying to see the comet befire sunruse here in Sydney. I'm hoping for better luck in the next few days after sunset..
I just got back from trying to hunt this comet, I got it with a DSLR and my Samyang 135 when it was in the morning but there's WAY too much wildfire smoke in the air at the moment even all the way in Missouri. I'll try again Tuesday and maybe get it in frame with M5. That'll be cool.
I just saw the comet, it cleared up just enough to see it faintly with the naked eye right before it became obscured by haze, looked ok through binoculars. Hopefully i will have a clear evening soon.
I just came back from from taking shots of the comet. I bought the Star Adventurer GTI because of your, and another person's video. Looked like the shots came out well. No editing at the moment but I'm excited!! S/n: I think I also saw a SpaceX launch today.
Just found it in my 9x63 binoculars. Wonderful. A very long tail. Tonight more or less between Venus and Arcturas. Was higher than I thought it would be.Tomorow I will get my photo gear set up and try photographing with my Olympus OM-10 I will use either 25mm f1.8 (50mm FF equiv,) or my 45mm f1.8 Probably camera on my eq mount to track a llittle get as long an exposure as I can. I may try you multi shot stacking technique if a get some good single images. So nice image Nico, and thanks for the video.
I tried last night and couldn't get a good vantage point of the horizon. Two hours wasted. Will try again next weekend earlier in the evening! Nice video thanks!
my wife and i were able to see it by eye tonight/13th just after dark . hard to see for the light hi clouds here in n Oklahoma it was about a hand span north of Venus and about 2 fingers width above (real technical i know) planning on trying to get some pics tomorrow wish us luck!!!
Is there a downside to using a software like Sequator to stack automatically? Or did you just stack in PS for convenience? Trying to figure out my own workflow for A3. Great vid!
Thanks for this. This was perfectly timed for me. I went through a similar adventure. Drove over two hours to try to capture the comet before sunrise. Couldn’t see it visually, but did see it in photos. But it wasn’t very impressive and I didn’t bother (yet) to process the data since I thought it would be lots of effort with unlikely results. Last night was first evening attempt. I have the comet in 750mm and 50mm tracked exposures (also 250mm with Seestar, but for some reason it didn’t save the raw frames as instructed….). But was left wondering how to process this given the aggressive sky gradients and foreground. I will now head to photoshop for the wide field…. Thanks! Oh... and one question that came to mind - how, in this workflow, could one add calibration frames? I took bias/darks/flats, created masters of them in Siril - but how would I go about integrating those into the workflow to further improve the result?
Great video 👏🏻 I captured it today from Pakistan. Here the horizon is quiet hazy but I was able to get it in a 25 second exposure form my mobile phone. Waiting for to raise up a little in a couple of days so I would be able to capture it in darker skies
0:46 SAME! I did capture it my first attempt at sunrise, however, it's a faint blob -- vs the spectacular images Ive been seeing all over SM -- by the time the clouds cleared, it was being washed out by the sunlight 🫥 After that, it was just days of clouds &/or rainstorms. So I waited for it to become a sunset target bc the west side is drier & clearer (typically). I tried to view it last night, but clouds 🙃😂 Trying again tonight. Another attempt is around 21-23 when it doesnt have to compete w/the moon & closer to the MW.
Nice job. I got similar results here in Connecticut away from as much light pollution as I could. I also face some nights of clouds! Its astronomy so what else is new.
Have been terrible weather/cloudy for weeks here I live (Norway). But today when I was about to put out two "rigs" for a nightly astrophoto-session, I could see the comet low in the sky. Managed to get a couple of half decent shot with the same lens (Samyang 135) on X-mount - Fujifilm X-H2.
Waiting an opertunity to capture an evening image here on the East coast of Australia. Got some nice dawn shots though so cannot complain. I dont have a computer to stack and process Raw files but have them saved for a day when I can. Bit tricky to get a good single jpeg shot using B mode and manualy holding the shutter open while you count 2 sec but I enjoy the challenge.
Hi Nico, wonderful results! Whats your take on the following workflow where only 1 step is extra to everything you just did: Import all the RAW frames to Ps with adobe camera raw. Select all, right click, enhance- in that, keep the noise reduction to say 60. It has been one of the most neat denoisers I've used. Perhaps a Ps Sensei AI feature that's trained very well on raw files. This will create DNG files with Enhanced-NR suffix in the same folder, which you can separately open in Ps and continue with the rest of the process. I know some of us may consider such denoiser a sin. But since I will anyway stack the frames, I would let stacking take the burden of minimizing AI artefacts, if any. (It's too good, I didn't see any glitches as such, but still). Rather than fighting the original noise with a stack. This has drastically reduced the number of light frames for me. Do try and let us know how it goes!
I got a few pics yesterday evening. Couldn't see it with naked eyes. To many trees block the horizon a bit. Did get it with 5 second exposures at f 2 on a 50mm lens.
I was just looking at Stellarium planning my attempt. As the days go by the comet will rise higher making it much easier to photograph. So I'll keep trying every evening until I get a good image. EDIT: Got some decent shots tonight. I expect to get better shots tomorrow.
Hi. I live on the south shore in mass and have been chasing the comet and missing it too. I was in Scituate last week and fogs rolled in. Which mountain did you climb? Wachusett?
maan why do I always get horrible weather when the comets show up?? I mean maybe the 20th it clears up a bit, but still... And I forgot my dslr, so I'll have to try the incredible combination of bortle 9, cloudy sky and a PnS from 2015, because that's what I've got until I get back to my town
Yes, but... A pretty bright waxing gibbous moon was already out when I shot it, but fairly far away in the sky. The sunset was definitely the primary limiting factor, not the moon. By the time it’s full moon on Thursday it looks like the moon is even further away, so the sunset may still be the main limiting factor but I’m not positive.
I took my 8" Celestron telescope up to the top of a mountain east of Mesa, AZ on the evening of the 12th and it was almost totally invisible. I used an app to guide the telescope to the position and after seeing it in the eyepiece, I was barely able to see it in the sky. Very disappointing. I'm hoping for better views after it gets away from the sun.
Its a real shame the comet has, more or less, died a death. The day you took that it was -3.1 the next day (when I got clear enough sky to see it in Binos) it went to 0.2 and today is now 2.1. Southern Hemisphere wins again.
Does the dust tail dim at the same rate as the nucleus? I ask because the dust tail still looks super bright in people’s more current photos. I also wonder how much it getting higher with better contrast will offset the dimming in terms of visibility.
4:12 timelapse video made from photos straight from camera - no editing. In the photoshop section I also compare an unedited single exposure straight from camera to my edited version, see 14:31
