Comet C/2015 ER61 Nears Earth
16-Apr-2017
C/2015 ER61 is a comet from the inner Oort cloud approximately 8-20 metres in diameter. By April 19th 2017 it will reach its closest point to Earth, and on May 10th it will reach its closest point to the Sun. It will not be back again for another 9000 years.
Image:
- 9x 60s Red + 10 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 9x 60s Green + 10 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 9x 60s Blue + 10 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
Total exposure 27 minutes.
Hardware:
- Skywatcher Black Diamond ED80
- SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
- QSI 683-ws Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik typ 2c RGB filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
- Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II
Location:
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
- Captured with AstroArt 6
- Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
- CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
- CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, combine RGB, gradient removal.
- Photoshop CC: Remove star trails, reduce noise, add single stars back in, levels, curves, saturation.