Comets in January 2018

Two relatively bright comets captured in January 2018.

Place: Kyiv (Osokorky district)
Equipment: Canon EOS 600D + Sky Watcher 10575 OTAW / EQ5 motorized
Processing: IRIS, FITStacker, Fitswork4, RawTherapee

Comet C/2017 T1 (Heinze)
43x30s
2018-01-08 16:09-17:09 UT. Comet position in the frame with stars corresponds to 16:09 UT.
FOV = 40x40 arcmin, North is up.
Processing: IRIS, FITStacker, Fitswork4, RawTherapee

Comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS)
68x30s ISO 1600
2018-01-10 19:49 UT (mid of series)
FOV = 40x25 arcmin, North is up
The blue color of the coma caused by ionized carbon monoxide CO+. Last time a comet with such a high content of CO was observed in 1962.

Supernova sn 2017gxq in Ursa Major (2)

Another picture of sn 2017gxq in NGC 4964 (Ursa Major). Now parent galaxy is visible as a small comet-like nebula (with longer total exposure and better atmosphere). My estimation gives the brightness of the supernova is comparable with the total brightness of the galaxy!

Supernova sn 2017gxq in Ursa Major

On 18-Oct-2017, I tried to picture a quite bright supernova sn 2017gxq, which exploded in a galaxy NGC 4964 (Ursa Major).
Despite the galaxy with the supernova was quite low in the sky (altitude ~29*) and in the direction near the city center (huge light pollution!) I managed to catch it.
Note that a parent galaxy is not visible at all (only very weak nebulosity could be mentioned).
My rough estimation of supernova's brightness is ~14.2m+-0.2

SkyWatcher 150/750 / EQ5 motorized + Canon EOS 600D; 20x32s; ISO=400. Processed with IRIS, green channel.

Messier 15 Globilar Cluster

Messier 15: a globular cluster with the very compact core; it is suspected that a black hole may exist in the center of the cluster.

Processing: IRIS (calibration, alignment), FITStacker (stacking, gamma, color correction), RawTherapee, FITWorks4, GIMP (SCNR by my plugin, BW+Color combining), FSViewer, crop, resize 50% of original.

The next picture is at 100% resolution, crop to field of view 15'

(after some deconvolution and contrast adjustment using AstraImage)

Perseids 2017

I tried to catch some meteors from my backyard in the night from 11 to 12 of August. Haze and Moon make the sky to glow so I mentioned only several brightest meteors by eye (one of them was definitely not Perseid).

Using Canon EOS 600D with kit lens in the night from 11 to 12, after 1 a.m. local time I managed to catch two bright meteors: at 1:17 (brighter) and at 1:36.

Canon EOS600D + kit lens 18-55 @18mm f/3.5 ISO=1600 Tv=15s

The brightest meteor passed near Little Dipper (left). A part of Cassiopeia W is in the bottom-right corner.

Field of view: 40x41 degree.

Asteroid Florence

Asteroid Florence
01 Sep 2017, 22:45..2315 (UT+3); Kyiv
Field of View: 30 arcmin

Canon EOS 600D + SkyWatcher 15075 OTAW / EQ5 Motorized
87 x 15s (+5s gap between frames)
ISO=1600

Evolution of Supernova SN 2017eaw

A supernova in a galaxy NGC 6946 is changing its color from bluish to yellowish due to cooling of an expanding gaseous shell. The color change was already noticeably at the end of Jun.

SkyWatcher 150/750 + Canon EOS 600D ISO 1600. 186x30s (1st image; two sessions: May 20 and 27), 101x30s (2nd image, Jul 22)
Kyiv