Another Once in a lifetime Comet. C/2014 E2 Jacques

We have been treated to a few bright comets over the last year and once again treated to another dance across the heavens. A possible collision event somewhere deep in the Oort cloud has sent another cosmic interloper to grace our skies. Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques is a long period comet of approx 30,000 years, so last seen 1200 generations ago when the Neanderthals and modern man were developing stone tools and art whilst enduring what was earths last last ice age.....
I too have endurred a few recent problems with the DDG focusser on the FLT110 scope and will need to be replaced for sure. So I have for the purpose of this comet removed the Starlight express and replaced it with the Canon 40D. Better for short exposures on what was the guide scope William optics GT81. Offering a nice 2.6 x 1.7 degree fov. The GT 81 boast a flat field lens which performed well on it's first test with the Canon. No coma issues at all.

So my aim was to:
Capture enough frames to put together an animation showing its motion.
Use Deep sky stacker software to Comet stack, Star stack and merge the two together.
The final result is noisy for two reasons capture was @Iso 1600 and there were no calibration frames used. (no time to acquire them) It is also a shame that 4 minute exposures was never going to be long enough to capture the Heart & soul nebula that it lies between in my image.

So first up the animation. 14 frames of 4 minute exposures separated by 1 minute intervals.

Next the comet stack from Deep sky stacker. Sigma clipped to remove most of the stars.

 

 

Final processed image of star field & comet.

I think I will also try the same process in maxim as the stars are not right. But for now it is another comet bagged & tagged.

 

That reminds me I will have to dig out some of my comet Hale Bopp photos and scan them in and post. Them were the days when comets had 2 tails you could see naked eye. We need another Hale Bopp.

 

perigee-syzygy

I am trying to refain from using the term "Supermoon", as it seems to inspire some strange questions from those whom think my interest in Selenology is being a member of the Celine Dion fan club.
No it won't start earthquakes.
No it wont cause a Tsunami.
No the world will not end..............

Therefore you can see my reluctance in using the phrase. The term "Supermoon" was first coined by an astrologer Richard Nolle way back in 1979 He claimed that this proximity of the Moon and the Earth has the tendency to trigger a series of natural disasters on the planet. In order to support his claim, he put forth a list of natural disasters in the past which he alleges happened as a result of this phenomenon. I say "WHAT A LOAD OF TOSH" So as you can see it is what you would expect from an astrologer. (pretend science) sniggering as I type.

Science fact.

Everybody knows that the Moon orbits around the Earth, but only a few people are aware of the fact that its orbit is not round, but is elliptical in shape. As a result of this shape, the distance between the Earth and moon varies from time to time. When the Moon is at its farthest point from the Earth, it is referred to as 'lunar apogee', and when it is at its closest it is referred to as 'lunar perigee'. In other words, the distance between the Earth and the Moon fluctuates between 221,000 to 252,000 miles - and lunar perigee occurs when this distance is somewhere around 221,000 miles.

My Image was taken last night between 21.39 & 21.42 at a mean distance of 222,483 miles.

Using my William Optics GT81 and my trusty Canon 40D I captured segments of the moon in series of AVI files. Processed in Registax 6 with a wavelet sharpening. Stitched together in Photoshop with a small contrast enhancement.

The opinions expressed about Astrology in this post are entirely my own.