Comet and Arcturus

Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) on 29-Dec-2015 at between half-past five and six o'clock a.m. (Eastrern European Time) from Kyiv (Osokorky) in a rare clear (and frosty: -8*C) night which occurred for a long period of cloudy weather. A green spot in the lower-right quadrant is the comet; a bright orange star is Arcturus -- Alpha Boötes.

Comet's tails are dimmer than on 8-Dec, probably because of bigger distance between the comet and the Sun: at the time of shooting it was 171 million km while on 8-Dec the distance was 138 million km only so the comet's activity declined. The tails are visible in the second black-and-white picture with enhanced contrast.

Equipment: Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II on a fixed tripod.
Image made by averaging of 100 frames with exposure of 4s; ISO=3200; f/2.5.
Software: DeepSkyStacker; FITStacker; RawTherapee.

Visual move of the comet on the stars' background during observation (about half an hour):

An orange star above the comet is HIP 69585 with a visual magnitude of about 6.5m.

Each frame of this animated GIF is composed of 10 initial frames (with exposure of 4s each).

Here is a simulation of comet's orbit (from http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/) for a period from my first observation (8 Dec) to the current:

Speed relative to Sun is ~39.4 km/s [on 29-Dec at 5:30 EET by http://www.heavens-above.com]
The comet is hyperbolic, so it will leave the Solar System.

Moon with Earthshine and Venus

Moon (with earthshine) and Venus
8-Dec-2015 5:48 EET (UT+2)

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8; ISO 200; 1/2s; f/2.2

Comet and Venus

Yet another variant of picture taken on 08-Dec-2015 with comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) and Venus.

Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 on tripod; 100x3s frames (05:59-06:09 EET (UT+2)); ISO=3200; f/2.2; DSS+FITStacker+RawTherapee.


After cropping and removing gradient:

Variant with smoothing:

Comet C/2013 US10 (CATALINA): tails

The comet shooted by Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 on tripod this morning before dawn.

Two tails of the comet have different composition. Ionised gases are blown by sunwind to a direction opposite to the Sun (a tail directed to the right and upwards); dusty tail directed downwards; comet moves to the left and upwards.

Serie of frames was taken 08-Dec-2015 between 05:59 and 06:19 EET (UT+2)

Resulted images are sum of 200 frames; each frame exposure is 3s.

Other parameters: ISO=3200; f/2.2.

Software: DeepSkyStacker, FITStacker, RawTherapee.

Comet's orbit (by calsky.com):

Comet C/2013 US10 (CATALINA) (continuation)

The comet C/2013 US10 (CATALINA) with Venus and Moon this morning (~5:45 EET (UT+2))
Bright coronas around light orbs are dominated in the picture because of monring haze.

Comet C/2013 US10 (CATALINA)

Weather forecast predicted clear sky this morning so I made an attemt to catch  C/2013 US10 (CATALINA) comet. Unfortunatelly, while I was preparing camera, unexpected clouds appeared.

The brightest objects are Moon and Venus. Time: 5:41 EET (UT+2) (07-Dec-2015)

The comet is marked in the zoomed part of the picture (Venus is on the right):

Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 18-55mm (kit)
Conditions: Exposure = 13s; f/4.5; ISO=1600; F=18mm

M31

M31
09-Aug-2015 01:31-01:43
Canon EOS 600D + EF 50mm f/1.8 II on tripod.
90x5s; ISO 3200; f/2.5.

Sun Dog 2

Sun dog -- today at 15:17 EET (Kyiv)
Picture taken with HTC One V smartphone.

[Update]
10.02.2016: added as illustration to https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B9

Venus, Jupiter and Mars before dawn 2

This morning was clear after many cloudy days...

So, here are Venus, Jupiter and Mars among stars at about 6 a.m. EET 2015 Oct 29. Kyiv, Osokorky district.

Canon EOS 600D on tripod + EF-S 18-55 kit lens (the first picture); EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II (the second one).

Jovian moons (Callisto and Europa) are visible in the second picture.

Venus, Jupiter and Mars before dawn

Venus, Jupiter and Mars before dawn (2015 Oct 17). Kyiv, Osokorky district.

6:20 EEST; Canon EOS 600D on tripod + EFS 18-55 kit lens.

6:00 EEST; Canon EOS 600D on tripod + EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens.

Zoomed part of the picture: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa are clearly seen on the one side and Io is hardly seen on the other. Mars is above Jupiter.

Double Supernumerary Rainbow

Double rainbow at sunset (Osokorky district, Kyiv). This is a panoramic image made from three pics taken using Canon IXUS 132 [08 SEP 2015 ~18:06 EEST]

Note that colors of the fainter secondary rainbow are in reverse order (because of double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops -- see graphical explanation at the end).

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The bright primary rainbow is supernumerary: you can see additional narrow faint rainbow(s) on the inner side of the primary one; this effect is better seen in the picture with enhanced contrast:

An appearance of the supernumerary rainbow is explained by interference of sunrays:

It is not possible to explain their existence using classical geometric optics. The alternating faint rainbows are caused by interference between rays of light following slightly different paths with slightly varying lengths within the raindrops. Some rays are in phase, reinforcing each other through constructive interference, creating a bright band; others are out of phase by up to half a wavelength, cancelling each other out through destructive interference, and creating a gap. Given the different angles of refraction for rays of different colours, the patterns of interference are slightly different for rays of different colours, so each bright band is differentiated in colour, creating a miniature rainbow. Supernumerary rainbows are clearest when raindrops are small and of uniform size. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow]

Here is an explanation how primary and secondary rainbows appear.
In the figure beneath paths of rays, which form primary and secondary rainbows are shown (from Wikipedia):

(7) primary rainbow; (8) secondary rainbow

The next figure is René Descartes' sketch of how primary and secondary rainbows are formed (from Wikipedia):

Milky Way in Cygnus

Dark dust clouds divide band of Milky Way in constellation of Cygnus (Northern Cross).
Below and slightly to the left to the brightest star of the constellation -- Deneb -- one can see an emission nebula “North America”, the shape of it closely resembles that of Earth continent.

An image is an average of 72 frames (12s each) taken by Canon EOS 600D (on tripod) with EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens.
I emphasised bright stars of the constellation (they were processed separately and overlayed on the main image):

Processing: DeepSkyStacker, FITStacker, RawTherapee, GIMP.

The pictures above were captured from a bank of Nebrezh lake (Osokorky district, Kyiv):

**** UPDATED 27-08-2015 ****
The same picture, other treatment. This image is not cropped, you can see big distortions at the angles (probably because of a "field rotation"). Nevertheless Milky Way's dark nebulas are better seen in this image:

By nova.astrometry.net (size 65.6 x 40.7 deg):

A Meteor of Perseid Shower

It seems that weather tonight will be not favourable for observations because of clouds...
A pic beneath was captured in the night from 8th to 9th of August (Kyïv, Osokorky)

08-Aug-2015 ~23:28 EEST (UT+3)
Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II; Exposure 20s; F=18mm; f/3.5; ISO 1600

****UPDATED****
Another treatment option

Cluster Chi-H Persei

Night from 8th to 9th of August 2015
Canon EOS 600D on tripod (no tracking) + EF 50mm F/1.8; 60x5s; ISO 3200; F/2.5

Stars, Satellites and Meteors above a Tree

Night from 8th to 9th of August 2015
https://youtu.be/cP-6MXpR3mw

Here is a frame from the video (meteor from Perseid shower):

Pass of International Space Station 05-Aug-2015

Pass of ISS 05-Aug-2015 (~22:47 EEST); view from Kyiv (Osokorky)

The picture is a composition of four 20-second frames made by Canon EOS 600D in serial shooting mode (with Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens).

ISS moves from West to East (from left to right side of the picture).

For naked eye ISS looks like a very bright star moving quickly on the stars' background.

DeepSkyStacker program was used to compose individual frames into the final picture.

Here is a predicted ISS track from heavens-above.com.

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After background subtraction (FITStacker)

Daytime Moon

Moon 4 Aug 2015 ~07:37 EEST (UT+3). Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II

Pass of ISS

While shooting moonrise (02 Aug 2015) I noticed very bright "star" that was moving among other stars. I managed to shoot it (exposure time 4 seconds, so moving star looks as a track). Later I identified it as International Space Station (ISS).
The first picture is a track of ISS; the second one is a result of identification of stars by means of astrometry.net; the third picture is a calculated ISS track (heavens-above.com)

02-AUG-2015 ~22:14..22:15 EEST (UT+3); Kyiv, Osokorky, Nebrezh lake.

Moon Rise (Moonlight on Water) No. 2

2 Aug 2015: Moonlight No. 2

Moon Rise (Moonlight on Water)

2 Aug 2015: Moonlight

Moonshine

30 Jul 2015; a day before "blue moon"

Half of the Moon

Moon 24 Jul 2015 in twilight.

Series of RAW frames pictured by Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II (on tripod).
Processing: Canon DPP; PIPP; Autostakkert; Registax6; RawTherapee/FSViewer.

Venus through 65mm Newtonian #2

Venus through 65mm Newtonian "Alcor" + Canon IXUS 132 compact camera.
18-Jul-2015 ~21:16 (UT+3); Kyiv (Osokorky)

Below: (1) Canon EOS 600D + EF-S 55-250mm [F=250mm]; (2) 10 times enlarged fragment; (3) Picture through 65mm Newtonian with Canon IXUS 135

Moon, Venus and Jupiter over Kyiv's South Bridge

Picture taken 20-Jun-2015 using Canon 600D with EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens.