I took many photographs of comets from my balcony ten years ago. Can I make them better with more modern image editing software ?
Most important, can I align the more complicated images with not linear moves.
This is the first image I tried it on and I could handle all four series of images I took, not only one:
Lovejoy C/2013 R1, 2013-11-28:
Date :
2013-11-28
Time (UT) :
23:52 to 00:15, Sweden +1
Mount :
EQ6 Pro Synscan controlled by EQMOD
Lens/telescope :
Pentax 500mm f/4.5 (f/4.5)
Field (FOV) :
4.1x2.7 degree, before cropping
Filter :
none.
Camera :
Canon EOS 5D
Exp. time :
8x30 seconds at ISO1000
Image process tool :
Siril, Gimp
Processing :
align, resize, level, cal dark
Site :
Sweden Stockholm, Hagsätra. Bortle class 9
Comment :
This photo is the first I took of the comet Lovejoy, it was in November 2013.
Bad weather limited it to only 8 sub images.
It reached magnitude 5 at most which is bright.
Lovejoy C/2013 R1, 2013-12-02:
Date :
2013-12-02
Time (UT) :
00:28 to 05:18, Sweden +1
Mount :
EQ6 Pro Synscan controlled by EQMOD
Lens/telescope :
Pentax 500mm f/4.5 (f/4.5)
Field (FOV) :
4.1x2.7 degree, before cropping
Filter :
none.
Camera :
Canon EOS 5D
Exp. time :
203x30 seconds at ISO1000
Image process tool :
Siril, Gimp, IrfanView
Processing :
align, resize, level, cal dark
Site :
Sweden Stockholm, Hagsätra. Bortle class 9
Comment :
I have a lot of photos of this comet. With the old software it was difficult to align them.
Now with Siril I can do this.
The exposure time is shorter for this set of images, only 30 seconds, it could make the tail sharper.
In reality it got softer, I think the tail is a bit rotated that make this soft look.
The noise is at least lower because of the big number of images.
Date :
2013-12-02
Comment :
Analyzing what caused the soft tail.
This sequence has been taking in two series with a time gap between.
During this time the comet have moved a long way, I can also see that the polar align wasn't perfect and that cause a rotation of the field.
The image is stacked on sub frames that has been aligned on the stars.
With that the rotation between the images is eliminated.
Now I stack it once again, now aligned on the comet core.
Date :
2013-12-02
Comment :
New image now aligned on rotation corrected and on comet core.
The tail got a little bit sharper now.
Much can be done to the background.
Lovejoy C/2013 R1, 2013-12-02:
Date :
2013-12-02
Time (UT) :
01:47 to 03:04, Sweden +1
Mount :
EQ6 Pro Synscan controlled by EQMOD
Lens/telescope :
Pentax 500mm f/4.5 (f/4.5)
Field (FOV) :
4.1x2.7 degree, before cropping
Filter :
none.
Camera :
Canon EOS 5D
Exp. time :
60x60 seconds at ISO1000
Image process tool :
Fitswork, Irfanview
Processing :
align, resize, level, cal dark and gamma image processing
Site :
Sweden Stockholm, Hagsätra. Bortle class 9
Comment :
This is is photos taken with longer exposure time, twice compare to that alone above, 60 seconds.
This photo is taken from my balcony, it's not very often they are in the right position to do this.
From my balcony I also have a lot of light pollution.
This was the only set of images that I could align with the old software.
Lovejoy C/2013 R1, 2013-12-13:
Date :
2013-12-13
Time (UT) :
04:22 to 05:00, Sweden +1
Mount :
EQ6 Pro Synscan controlled by EQMOD
Lens/telescope :
Pentax 500mm f/4.5 (f/4.5)
Field (FOV) :
4.1x2.7 degree, before cropping
Filter :
none.
Camera :
Canon EOS 5D
Exp. time :
29x60 seconds at ISO1000
Image process tool :
Siril, Gimp
Processing :
align, resize, level, cal dark
Site :
Sweden Stockholm, Hagsätra. Bortle class 9
Comment :
This is the last photo of the comet Lovejoy, its brightness is weaken for every day now
Animation of comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1, 2013-11-28 to 2013-12-13:
Date :
2013-11-28 to 2013-12-13
Animation :
Comment :
From all these sub photos I put together a comet animation.
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