Field size is approximately 2.1° x 1.4°, north is up, east to the left.
Comet C/2014 Q2 is the fifth comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy, and another
quite spectacular one. In January 2015, it brightened to magnitude 5,
and became one of the brightest comets located high in a dark sky in years. It
was an easy binocular target during that time and could be seen by the naked eye
in a dark environment. On January 7, 2015, the comet passed closest
to earth, at a distance of only 0.469 AU (approx. 70 mio. kilometers). The
comet was at perihelion on January 30, 2015.
The image above was guided onto the comet's core. The comet moved quickly during the 40 minutes of exposure.
Exposure Data
- Instruments: L: 4.9" f/3.8 Wright-Newtonian, RGB: 4.1" f/6.2 APO refractor
- Exposures: 8 x 5 min
- Cameras: L: ATIK 383L+, RGB: QHY8 Pro
- Exposure start: 21:17 MEZ
- Dates: January 26, 2015
- Locations: Floridsdorf, Vienna
- Conditions: SQM-L sky brightness 18.1 mag/arcsec2, temperature -2°C, no wind, moderate humidity
- Autoguider: Lacerta MGEN
- Enhancement: Basic data reduction, comet stacking, logarithmic curves, background flattening, L + RGB composition, color correction, noise filtering, local contrast enhancement, starsize reduction
- Notes: A combination of luminance and color CCD images taken on
parallel-mounted telescopes. A half-moon was located not far from the comet and
greatly brightened up the background.
