Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught)

This is the brightest comet I have ever seen. It brightened unexpectedly shortly before it rounded the Sun and was only visible from the UK for a few days both shortly after sunset and shortly before sunrise; in both cases very low in the sky. I was extremely lucky to get these images during the hour between sunset and the setting of the comet. We had been having very cloudy conditions with high winds for what seemed like weeks, but on the evening of 10th January 2007, the clouds cleared right down to the western horizon. I didn't know just where the comet would appear and my views to the west are quite restricted, but I managed to grab this view using a hand-held Toucam fitted with a 58-mm, SLR lens out of an upstairs, bedroom window.

This is the best, single frame from the AVI.

Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:08 UT
Camera: Toucam 840K
Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure
Processing: Registax. Auto colour balance.

This is a stack of the best 395 frames aligned on the comet. The movement of the comet in the 80 seconds covered by these exposures is shown by the fact that the foreground objects have been blurred by the movement. I tend to forget just how quickly the sky appears to rotate.

Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:07 UT
Camera: Toucam 840K
Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure
Processing: Registax. 395 frames, wavelet 1 = 10, auto colour balance.

This has been reprocessed using a technique in K3CCDTools which only adds a pixel into the stack if it is lighter than the stacked one. This has successfully removed the wires crossing the sky at the cost of some degradation of the rendering of the head of the comet. However you can now see the extent of the comet's tail which extends (possibly) to the edge of the frame. The technique destroyed the colour, so the image has been rendered in monochrome.

Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:07 UT
Camera: Toucam 840K
Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure
Processing: Registax. 395 registered frames exported as avi. This avi was imported into K3CCDTools and stacked with the if-lighter option, the gamma increased to 1.3, the histogram set to 100-255, the brightness reduced, and the final image stored in greyscale.

Home This and That

		This is the best, single frame from the AVI. Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:08 UT Camera: Toucam 840K Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure Processing: Registax. Auto colour balance.
		This is a stack of the best 395 frames aligned on the comet. The movement of the comet in the 80 seconds covered by these exposures is shown by the fact that the foreground objects have been blurred by the movement. I tend to forget just how quickly the sky appears to rotate. Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:07 UT Camera: Toucam 840K Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure Processing: Registax. 395 frames, wavelet 1 = 10, auto colour balance.
		This has been reprocessed using a technique in K3CCDTools which only adds a pixel into the stack if it is lighter than the stacked one. This has successfully removed the wires crossing the sky at the cost of some degradation of the rendering of the head of the comet. However you can now see the extent of the comet's tail which extends (possibly) to the edge of the frame. The technique destroyed the colour, so the image has been rendered in monochrome. Date and Time: 10th January 2007 17:07 UT Camera: Toucam 840K Telescope: 58 mm SLR lens Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, auto exposure Processing: Registax. 395 registered frames exported as avi. This avi was imported into K3CCDTools and stacked with the if-lighter option, the gamma increased to 1.3, the histogram set to 100-255, the brightness reduced, and the final image stored in greyscale.