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Writer's pictureTakashi Iwamoto

Photographed Comet Leonard (December 2021)

Updated: Aug 11, 2022




Photographs of comets since Neowise, which was seen last summer.


This time too, I took a short shot from the window of my house.

It's no good.

With a family, freedom is hard to come by.


Now, when and where can you see Comet Leonard?

You can find the approximate position on the net, but I still want to know what kind of trajectory to take and where to go.

So, I put the orbital data pulled from Wikipedia into the astronomical simulation software.


Stella Navigator 95, which I introduced before.

1995 is 26 years ago. It's a decent genuine product, purchased at Book Garden at the time, and now at Tsutaya, and I've been using it for a long time.

It's old, so the graphics are sloppy, but I don't need any pretty graphics.

The important thing is that you can do anything without connecting to the internet.

The beautiful graphics are basically children's tricks, and in a sense, they are the same as children's picture books.

It's enough if you can get the information you need.

Just tell yourself why you're not new.


Old software, software from the Windows 95 era.

It can be used using XP mode.

Now, let's put in the data,

Perihelion passage date, perihelion distance, eccentricity, periapsis argument, ascending node ecliptic, orbital inclination, etc.


There are some things that I don't understand, but for the time being, just enter the numbers.

If you don't understand it, I will slowly investigate it later.


After filling in the orbital elements, the comet appeared on the screen.

Like last time, it's a place you can see through the window. You can see it on the left side of the previous time.


Enter comet orbit data in Stella Navigator 95


Comet Leonard displayed on the left side of the screen,


It's a very useful software for stella navigator and astrophotography.

Is it an app now?

Should apps in the era called software be called software?

I don't care, that's it.



You can also display what it looks like due to the positional relationship of the solar system.


Positional relationship between planets and Mercury


The positional relationship in the photo above, the sun on the right in the middle, and the earth on the lower left.


Comet Leonard's orbit seems to come from the top left of the screen and leave to the right.

Positional relationship when shooting.


The fact that the orbit inclination angles exceed 132 degrees and 90 degrees seems to mean that the orbits are drawn in the opposite direction to the orbits of the planets.

It is difficult to understand from the above picture, but the orbital route that Comet Leonard has followed, the higher it is, the more it will be on this side.


Is it difficult to understand?


The caretaker takes a picture at 85mm to find the dark object and confirms the location.

Display the 85mm angle of view on the simulator and check the positional relationship with the main stars.


85mm angle of view, 19:00 on December 22nd


When I try to simulate it

It is 85mm full size, and you can see that Venus and Saturn fit on the same screen as Comet Leonard.


Now, if you take a picture with this angle of view, the comet will fit in the screen.

I framed Saturn to the right of the screen and took a picture.


Compared to the simulator above, I found Comet Leonard at almost the expected location.



If you look closely at the photo, you can see Comet Leonard in the place exactly as the simulation.

The surroundings are light-polluted, and the twilight still remains, so it is difficult to see even with binoculars.

Even in such a situation, if you take a picture, it will be taken properly.

I took a picture and confirmed that there was a comet properly.


You can hardly see it in the photo above, but if you look closely, you can see that the tail extends upward.

Even things that are invisible to the naked eye can be photographed, so the 85mm focal length comes in handy at such times.


When I knew the location, I increased the magnification by increasing the focal length to 180mm.


Comet Leonard at 180mm, unsatisfactory


The clouds don't clear up easily.

The moment the comet clears, Kassha!

Actually 10 seconds of exposure. Since the mirror lockup is used, the sound is click, click ...


The tail was also shown, but 180mm is not enough.

Round up 180mm immediately and go to Sunnipper.


Taken with a sunnipper attached.


The comet's tail that has emerged quite a bit after being emphasized



No trimming, 300mm full size and above size.

Post-processing including vignette control. It's strange because I'm tinkering with the decrease in peripheral illumination.


All photos are taken by tracking with Sky Memo T.

Sky Memo T is operated using WIFI on a smartphone.

This cooperative operation may take some time.

The Sky Memo side sometimes doesn't listen to me.

I feel that the memory of the last operation is bad.



Use with a load resistance of over 1 kg, Sky Memo worked hard



Immediately after the start of shooting this time, Sky Memo was not moving even though the smartphone application side was displayed as moving.

When I set the tracking speed from sidereal time to suntime, it started to move properly.

I did this when I was shooting at the 85mm above.

Sometimes there is such a problem, so I definitely want you to improve it.


This Sky Memo T can freely change the rotation speed, which is very useful for time-lapse photography.


The comet will soon sink.

For a limited shooting time, I was in a hurry until I confirmed that Sky Memo started working properly.

After all, I want you to be able to track the minimum celestial bodies without using WIFI.

Maybe I can do it?


The photo below shows a pixel size of 900x600.




It's flowing a little, but the tail has come up quite a bit.


Sensitivity is 400, exposure is 10 seconds, open f2.8, high sensitivity noise correction is normal

I lifted the shadow quite a bit, so it's pretty rough.

No noise is tampered with in the post-processing.


It's a little blurry, but I wonder if it's like this.


The lower frame can be seen in the foreground, but in reality the tail is in the foreground, which is closer to the earth.


The photo below was taken with the D850.


No vignette control, ISO1000 aperture open f2.8, exposure 8 seconds



The exposure conditions are completely different from the D800E, so I can't compare which one is better.


The photo below is the same size.


900x600 pixel same size image



I didn't forcibly lift the shadow, but the mosaic noise came up.


Since the settings and post-processing are different, it cannot be compared unconditionally, but the shadow noise characteristics of the D800E and D850. The noise of the D800E is similar to the noise of film and the graininess that does not occur so much such as gradation skipping.

The shadow noise of the D850, and when you lift it up, a fairly large and smooth mosaic pattern appears.


Hmmm, I still can't let go of the D800E.


The D850 and LCD screen are clear, so it's very easy to shoot.

By comparison, the D800E is a good choice for shooting stars.


The comparison between the D800E and D850, and the noise characteristics, naturally gave the same results as those covered in the previous blog.

It shouldn't change.

It means that I was able to reconfirm.


Unlike Comet Neowise, which was seen last year, comet that never approaches the earth, how far will it fly?

Not orbiting the solar system means that even when the sun grows old and becomes a red giant, it is still flying somewhere in the universe.



 

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