COMET PANSTARRS L4 2011 : A PDF photo diary by Greg Knekleian

MARCH 8, 2013 - Our First Attempt to view Comet Panstarrs

On a Hill In Allen Park, Michigan - Our rst attempt (March 8, 2013) Comet Panstarrs was only 8 degrees above the setting sun. Haze and low clouds would obscure the comet. FAAC Astronomers and visitors were ready and willing to see the comet (below.)

March 8, 2013 Allen Park Michigan (top left) I took a test image quickly taken, to get my F4 homebuilt reector in focus. safe Thousand Oaks solar lter (not shown) (center left) Afocal shot (taken through the eyepiece) of a safe solar telescope setup with Astrozap Solar lm over the telescope openings. (Caution never observe the sun without a proper solar telescope. Ask an astronomer if your solar setup is safe, or verify with companies like OPT telescopes in California, that your observing setup is safe for solar viewing. We didnt nd the comet, but we met some new friends and showed some the sun, the moon Jupiter and M42. Later that night Erin, facing us i(n the photo immediately left) stopped joined Rick, James and I at Tim Hortons before James and I gave Erin his rst tour of HJRO.

Fun with a 3D images Documenting the event can be fun with a 3d camera. I brought out my Fujix W3 3D camera and took a shot of the some of the hopeful observers before the sun set. To view this 3d Anaglyph image, youll need those paper movie glasses that have cyan red lters for the old time 3d experience.

3d photo - Viewing the 3d photo with the cross eye method. Zoom in on the above photo show it displays at full screen. (This technique works better in a dark room.) Stare at the center and cross your eyes slightly to merge the two white dots. Three photos will appear below the dots, the middle one will be in 3d.

FINALLY Viewed March 13, 2013

Wednesday March 13, 2013 - Our rst glimpse of the comet. Comet Panstarrs was at magnitude 1.1 according to estimates from Sky Safari or The Sky software.

March 14, 2013 - FAAC President - Gordon Hansen, two guests standing behind Brians C-8, Brian Kutscher, Mike Stamey looking away facing Rick Arzadon, Greg Ozimek (behind Rick), Art Parent

MEANWHILE AT HJRO . . .
Hey you guys, my brother is outside ying by the sun, and youre playing with computers.

Thursday night was math night at the Lincoln Park Middle School: Tim Campbell and Sandra Macika gave presentations. Jim Barnes and Tim Dey were there as well. At the Lincoln Park site, they saw Comet Panstarrs using 10 by 50 binoculars. Later I dropped by and found Tim Campbell and Tim Dey working on the new computer setup at Hector J Robinson Observatory (HJRO).

All Canon EOS t1i wide eld photos on this and previous pages were taken with an F5.6 eld

The FOUR SECOND blur - A Bad exposure, from a xed mount. 4 seconds through the Nexstar 4SE on a xed tripod. At 42x we cant take a long exposure of the comet from a xed tripod,. The motion from the earths rotation will be picked up and the comets image will be blurred. You need short exposures or a tracking mount. (In retrospect I should have taken 1 second exposures at 3200 ISO.)

Sunday March 17, 2013 Comet Panstarrs over Spring Mill Pond, Island Lake State Recreation Area All images on this and subsequent pages were taken with an F7.1 eld stop.

Comet 2011 L4 Panstarrs Over Mill Creek Pond Island Lake State Recreation Area, Brighton Michigan 3-17-2013 (c) Greg Knekleian

Ken Anderson spotted the comet rst with his 15 by 63mm binoculars. He saw it naked eye immediately after locating the comet, then moved to get to his bigger binoculars and lost it. We watched the comet and could see the tail through the thin clouds in the distance. The tail being quite bright. Sky Safari estimated the comet would be at Magnitude 1.7 but Ken thought it was brighter than that. (Cropped image above is from a four second exposure.) (This shows a more true color image of the site, but brightened with the exposure. The next page has an altered look.)

COMET PANSTARRS and SKY GLOW A different look - I tried to process the photo differently using Nebulosity (Macintosh), Photoshop and Neat Image Pro. Lower left is a cropped view that shows the comets position.

(My goal was to show the glowing of the horizon and emphasize the dark fall-off of light that occurs at the Island Lake site.)

COMET PANSTARRS in the clouds. Island Lake, Sprig Mill Pond, Carlton Michigan. March 17, 2013 - (My quick processing notes for this are: reduced color blend with noise ltering using Neat Image Pro.)

Self Portrait with Panstarrs: Camera was set to take a 10 second exposure at ISO 1600. (As you can see I moved a bit.) As the comet descended into the trees I could see trees in front, further back and then the comet behind them. . . the wonders of binocular viewing.

COMET PANSTARRS: Ken Anderson and Greg Knekleian look in the direction of the comet Sunday night, March 17, 2013 As the comet set we took some photos of ourselves watching the comet. Other tempting targets were immediately above us. (10 second exposure, ISO 1600 F7.1 F-stop, Canon EOS T1i.)

March 22, 2013 - Comet Panstarrs grows dimmer with more haze in Allen Park

1600 iso F7.1 eld stop Canon EOS T1i, 3.2 second exposure

Panstarrs and Jet

over Southeld freeway, Allen Park, Mi 1600 ISO four second exposure. Light adjustments in preview for Macintosh and cropped

March 22, 2013 - Panstarrs unltered (top left) or with Neat

Image Pro noise reduction (right) Neat Image can give a smoother look reducing the grain while leaving in most of the details.

March 22, 2013 Panstarrs magnitude estimate 2.8 . Comet looked faint with sky glow and haze

March 23: Comet Panstarrs? Over Belleville Lake

A cold wind blew over the Lake Headlights, park lights, and sky glow hampered viewing efforts. I was not able to see the comet through the sky glow. A lady and her daughter stopped to talk and see if I found the comet. They had a friendly dog who wanted to jump on me or nudge my leg while I was trying to nd the comet. When I complained about the dog they decided to leave. I was trying to get an image on a laptop as well, but had my Canon EOS lens set to wide at 25mm. For a while I thought I saw it as a smudge in the photo below. But it turned out it was an airplane.

Its fainter now. . . entering into the realm of really big telescopes at dark sky sites or photographic rigs. Now we can anticipate COMET ISON in the fall of 2013

Greg Knekleians Comet 2011 L4 Panstarrs: Observing Summary

Date" " " March 8, 2013" " " " " " " " " " March 13, 2013 " " " " " " " " " " March 14, 2013 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " March 17, 2013 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " March 22, 2013" " " " " " " " " " March 23, 2013 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " March 27, 2013 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " Quick Summary Big setup for comet Panstarrs (8 degrees above sun), could not see the comet from Allen Park. (10 inch Newtonian, Vixen BT-80 and two four inch rich eld reectors were setup.) Seven FAAC members showed up and a dozen visitors. Haze low clouds up to 5 degrees above true horizon prevented observation of the comet. Was able to see the comet from Allen Park location. Comet was relatively bright at 1 magnitude. 20 -25 people visited. Rick Arzadon and James French showed up. (Math pi night at LP Middle school.) I observed in Allen Park Michigan. Gorden Hansen found the comet rst with 10 by 50 binoculars. 20 people including visitors. Saw comet, Imaged with Nexstar 4SE at 42x with xed mount Brian Kutscher showed up and took images using C8. Greg Ozimek showed up with his camera. Comet looked nice in 10 inch Dobsonian Rick Arzadon setup. In Lincoln Park, four FAAC members saw the comet with 10 by 50 binoculars. Saw the comet at dark sky site with Ken Anderson, Island Lake Ken had three binoculars, I deployed the BT-80 binoculars. Ken wrote a good observing diary. (Magnitude 1.7 comet.) Comets tail was short, but bright. Ken saw comet naked eye. I estimated the comets tail was as bright as the M42 nebula cloud viewing both through the BT-80. Ken Anderson located the comet rst tonight using his 15 by 63 binoculars. Saw it in Allen Park with Ken Anderson. Used laptop imaging with Canon EOS to locate the comet. Panstarrs was dim at magnitude 2.8 with sky glow and haze. FAAC Astronomers showed up at HJRO as well, some saw the comet through the C14 and Meade. Sandra said the mag 2.8 comet looked about the same in the C14 as it did in binoculars on March 14. Realized sky would be clear late in the afternoon. Could not drive out to meet Ken Anderson in time. (Ken saw the comet in South Lyon.) Stopped at Belleville Lake, which was not a good site for viewing the comet. Could not locate comet, even with laptop imaging or binoculars. Clouds moved in as comet set cutting other observing short. Belleville Park had to much direct light pollution from passing cars and street lights. First morning photos of Comet Panstarrs are taken from HJRO, magnitude 3.8 comet. Darker sites with low horizons have a big advantage to urban sites lled with light pollution.

OVERALL SUMMARY: " " " " "

March 27, 2013 6:20AM - Comet

Panstarrs from HJRO. The comet now rises before the sun. Its getting easier to photograph from HJRO. Zooming in left, dynamic enhance (right)