Observing report for mornings of the 1st, 4th and 7th of November 2013

Observing report

The following images were all taken at the SON@OSC (Searchlight Observatory Network at the Observatorio Sierra Contraviesa)

4" Pentax Refractor at F4 plus an ST8 CCD camera

Observing 01/11/2013

Slightly overslept plus thin cloud to the East. Just suitable for C/2012 X1 Linear, and managed to capture C/2012 S1 ISON, C/2013 R1 Lovejoy and 2P Encke. In the case of 2P Encke I originally thought that the cloud was thick enough to hide most of the ion tail, however when I made a negative the ion tail is very clear, so much so that it has been complimented on Facebook Comet Groups.

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

2P Encke

C/2012 X1 Linear - negative

C/2012 X1 Linear

Observing 04/11/2013

This sky this morning was not very good as a mist came rolling in. This meant that imaging the two lower altitude comets 2P Encke and C/2012 X1 Linear was impossible. C/2012 S1 ISON when imaged was so faint it was useless. That left C/2013 R1 Lovejoy. The mist was thin enough to image this a number of times using the clear filter and also LRGB. On processing though it soon clear that the LRGB images were not very good and the once's through the clear filter although reasonable were not showing as much of the tail that other observers were seeing, though I have managed to bring out what I believe to be the ion tail in the negative.

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

C/2013 Lovejoy negative showing tail

Observing 07/11/2013

Woke up at 4:30 ready to image the four comets. Disaster, the electric had been off the previous night and the CCD camera was warm. Set the cooling on, but there must be some slight condensation somewhere as it took just about the rest of the night to dry it out. :(  I managed to take a few images of C/2012 S1 ISON. I have trimmed the best one.

C/2012 S1 Linear

 This evening I intend to change the configuration!