Time-lapse Video of Ison by Justin Ng

This incredible video of Ison was shot by professional photographer Justin Ng from Mersing, Malaysia. The video is a time-lapse produced over 69 minutes, shot on the 27th of October.
Justin commented that when he first spotted Ison she was glowing bright green "It's my first time seeing a comet and capturing it in motion. It's truly amazing! After I compiled the images and did a time-lapse movie for it, I'm totally in awe and speechless to see the comet moving that fast across the night sky," he said

As the video plays you can see the comet fading, this is due to the fact that the sun was starting to rise and brighting the sky causing Ison to fade from view. Eagle eyed viewers may also spot the galaxy NGC 3428 below and to the left of the two brightest stars on the left of the video.

Please be patient while the video loads, it's well worth the wait!

Normally you would not be able to see Ison moving whilst viewing the comet over such a short period of time, even though she is traveling at around 680,000 KPH but because of the very low field of view of Justins set up it allows us to see her in motion.
Justin explained:

"The primary reason why the comet appears to be moving fast across the sky within 69 minutes is because of the smaller field of view, which makes a very deep space object looks big on the screen and move faster. This is evident if you were to use any planetarium softwares and try to zoom in closely into Comet ISON, you will see its moving faster and faster as the field of view becomes narrower.
I used a 20″ telescope and a specialized monochrome CCD camera to capture it and the field of view is 0.55 degrees. This is extremely narrow and the smaller the field of view, the faster an object will appear to move. Each exposure was only 90 seconds and so when you looked into the time-lapse in the slow motion part, each frame represent the distance covered by Comet ISON within 90 seconds. Which is logical because Comet ISON is traveling at a speed of 684,000kph (425,000mph).
Currently comet is not visible to naked eyes due to its magnitude of about +8.1 and the magnitude of the 2 brightest stars are at around +7, still beyond what naked eyes can see. However there have been reports that the comet is now visible for binoculars and medium-sized telescope.
The images used in the video is what you see in the RAW files. No other editing was done besides cropping the images to fit into 1920 resolution."

Justin Ng is a spectacular photographer with many awards under his belt, his work published by BBC's Sky at Night, National Geographic, ABC, EarthSky, CNN and the Guardian to name just a few! Justin does not limit himself to astrophotography, he actually specializes and is ranked one of the very best in the world at photographing landscapes, sports and especially weddings! So if your tying the knot and fancy the best photographer in the business check out his website here 

Photo of Ison by Cliff Spohn & Terry Hancock

This amazing picture of Ison is a joint effort by astrophotographers Cliff Spohn from Ohio and Terry Hancock in Michigan. The image was captured by Cliff using his TEC 140 F7 5" refractor telescope with a QHY9 camera based in Marion, Ohio, while his mate Terry took care of the processing work.
This is not the first collaboration by the pair, You might remember they released a great video of Ison a couple of weeks ago that got us all excited, which you can see here.

Ison by Cliss Spohn & Terry Hancock

Terry Hancock commented “The first time in almost two weeks that we have had a break in the clouds and rain we could not miss this rare opportunity to capture ISON using Cliff’s equipment, Credit goes to Cliff for capturing the object while I did the calibration, stacking in CCDStack post processing in CS5 and video editing.”

Binoculars, The BCRS buyers guide

When shopping for binoculars it pays to know what your looking for and what the specifications mean.

You'll notice that binoculars have numbers such as 7x25 or 10x50 proudly printed on them. These numbers are the magnification and objective lens ratings and are obviously important, but there is so much more to consider.....

Magnification

The first number is the magnification, how much the binocular will magnify what you're looking at. It's very easy to get carried away and think bigger is better, but high magnification binoculars can be hard to hold on target and have a smaller field of view, the higher the magnification the greater the effect of handshake. Another consideration is weight, the higher the magnification, the greater the weight, the more your arms ache! 7x and 8x binoculars can be used by most people for long periods with out causing much trouble, where as anything above 10x WILL make your arms ache! 7x to 10x binoculars will be perfect for viewing Ison, and will also be good for general use.

Objective Lens or Apeture

The object lens is the bigger lens at the front of the binoculars. The rating is the size of the lens in mm, so for example a 10x50 will have a 50mm diameter lens. The object lens is an important consideration, as it will determine how much light can enter the binoculars. The more light, the brighter and clearer the image, which is especially important for night time viewing.

Exit Pupil

This is rarely given when buying binoculars, but is important none the less. Exit pupil is the amount of light which leaves the binoculars at the rear, which is the light you see! To magnify the image the light coming into the binoculars is spread which makes it dimmer. This is not usually a problem in daylight, but at night viewing dim objects you can struggle. The exit pupil is the objective lens size divided by the magnification, the higher the answer the better!

For example to work out the exit pupil of 10x50 binoculars: 50/10 =5 

If we compare that to 8x50 binoculars 50/8 = 6.25

The 8x50 binoculars will there for give a brighter image than the 10x50 even though they have the same objective lens size.

Field of view

This may be written as "field", "angle" or as a number of degrees. Most binoculars in the UK will be marked with field and have the specification below which will be something like "70m at 1000m". This means that if you were viewing a wall that was 1000 metres away, you would be able to see 70 metres of it. A larger field of view makes it easier to locate objects and to keep it in view. The benefit for comet viewing is of course being able to fit the tail in! 

Lens Coating

Most binoculars nowadays have coated lenses. Look at the objective lens and you will probably notice the lens is red, blue, green or yellow. The idea of this coating is to prevent the light from scattering which can make the image darker, in reality we have found these coatings to make very little difference when using the binoculars for astronomy. The one exception is "Ruby coated" lenses, which should be AVOIDED at all costs! I have seen these advertised as "night vision" but nothing could be further from the truth! Ruby coating actually reduces the amount of light that enters the binoculars, the opposite of what you want for night viewing!

Prisms

There are two types of binoculars which you will come across, Porro prism and Roof prism. There is not much between them when it comes to use, but there is when it comes to price. Roof prism binoculars are more expensive than Porro prism. If we had the choice of two binoculars one Porro and one Roof, both costing £100, we would rather our money went on the lenses than the prism, so we would buy the Porro's.

Its quite easy to tell the difference, look at the picture, notice the Porro's have a "step" where as the Roof binoculars are "straight"

Where to buy

The best place to buy binoculars is from astronomy shops or camera shops. Here you can get a good feel of the size and weight, which can vary dramatically between models. The advice from a good shop is also invaluable. You might have seen cheap unbranded Chinese binoculars on market stalls, and ebay but these are usually very low quality and best avoided if possible. If you are on a tight budget try second hand shops, car boot sales or even army surplus stores, but always test them well!  Even the best bins can be rendered useless if they've been dropped! Outdoor/camping shops can also throw up a bargain especially this time of year! Online optic specialist's often sell binoculars much cheaper than the high street shops, but of course you cant pick them up and make sure they fit you well.

Brands

We're not going to recommend any brands over another, but do recommend buying branded to ensure good quality. There are many manufacturers and this short list only contains a few to give you a idea of what's out there. You'll probably notice the big camera manufacturers on the list, with binoculars just like cameras, its all about the lens, and if anyone knows lenses, it's a company that makes cameras!

Top of the price range look for: Steiner, Nikon, Cannon, Celestron, Pentax, Leupold, Praktica, Lecia, Swaroski 

Bottom of the price range: Bushnell, Tasco, Minolta, Vivtar and Jason

We can not express enough that the "bottom of the price range" list is means exactly that, it is in no way to say they are lower quality, in fact my favorite binoculars are Bushnell! 

Expect to pay around £25 for a small pair of budget binoculars up to several hundred at the other end of the scale.

Conclusion

The ideal pair of binoculars will be between 7x and 10x magnification and have a objective lens of between 35 and 50mm. Binoculars which are larger will be heavy and awkward to use and may even require a tripod! Avoid astronomical binoculars they are far to large for comet watching, and useless for everyday use.

Compact binoculars usually have a 25mm or smaller objective lens and should also be avoided if your budget will allow.  If you have to go for compact, get a lower magnification to increase the exit pupil rating.

Chose a pair of binoculars that you can use not just for astronomy, but for bird and wild life watching. You might discover that you're just not in to comets, so a pair of £300 celestial binoculars would be a bad purchase! Avoid any red coating on the lenses especially ruby coating. Lastly the weight, we can not express enough how important this is! A heavy pair of binoculars can be really uncomfortable to use and at the end of the day, if your not enjoying it whats the point.............

How to see Ison

OK so you want to see Ison, but how to go about it?

The most important piece of equipment is simply your eyes! This may sound obvious but come the end of November in to December Ison will be more than visible to the naked eye. Ison will appear as a bright point of light low in the sky with a long tail stretching far up in to the heavens, and should be visible all across the northern hemisphere.

McNaught's Comet of 2007

The spectacular picture above is of McNaughts comet also known as "the great comet of 2007". McNaught was visible in the Southern hemisphere. We expect Ison to put on a show of similar scale, so as you can see you really don't need any fancy equipment to enjoy this amazing celestial show!

That said to view Ison before she becomes visible to the naked eye you will need to use optics, as you will if you want to see some of the finer details in her tail, the lumps of material and even jets from her surface.
There obvious choice is to run out and buy a astronomy telescope, but this would be our last choice!
So what are the options? Well it comes down to three, Binoculars, terrestrial telescopes and astronomy telescopes and we rate them in that order, and here why....

Binoculars:

People always over look binoculars when staring out in astronomy, but they are the most useful tool an astronomer can own. Firstly for someone who just wants to catch a glimpse of Ison in all her glory, you really don't want to be spending huge sums of money on a telescope.
A good pair of binoculars cost considerably less than even the cheapest telescope and are not limited to just sky watching! Binoculars are much easier to use, it takes experience and a little skill to locate a distant object with a telescope and even more to keep it tracked on, binoculars make short work of both tasks! The large field of view you get with binoculars make finding objects in the sky easy. The best place to observe anything in the night sky is out in the country, on top of a hill, away from the light pollution of the towns and cities. Unfortunately for astronomers, these are not the easiest places to get to when your carrying a 25kg telescope! No optical device likes being dropped, including binoculars, but we can tell you from experience that telescopes really, REALLY don't like falls! Binoculars on the other hand are designed for "rougher" use. Finally space, not the bit up there but the lack of it in your home! Binoculars take up no room at all and can be kept handy in your cars glove box for those unscheduled comet watching moments! Don't know much about binoculars? Don't worry, scroll down for our buyers guide!
Get a good pair of bins, your back, wallet and sanity will thank you!

Terrestrial Telescopes:

These telescopes are often used for bird watching and are also known as spotter scopes, field telescopes, birding scopes or sports scopes to name but a few. Terrestrial telescopes can be fantastic for comet watching, but do suffer from a lot of the same restrictions that an astronomy telescope does. The advantage's of a terrestrial scope is that they offer higher magnification than binoculars without being to high like a regular telescope. The field of view is also much larger than a regular telescope which makes it easier to locate and stay on objects in the sky. They are much more rugged than an astronomy telescope, smaller, lighter and easier to carry. On the down side though, they are more expensive than binoculars, harder to use, heavier and more awkward to carry and still require a tripod. Our advice is, if you have one or can borrow one take it with you. If not stick with the binoculars.....

Astronomy Telescopes:

Astronomy telescopes are designed to view far space objects, rather than near earth objects like Ison. 

The high magnification and small field of view makes it hard to locate objects in the sky and with the earths rotation, hard to keep in view. 

Telescopes don't come cheap, and the ones that do are usually very poor quality. If you have never used a telescope before, you will probably become frustrated quickly. 

Don't get us wrong telescopes are the backbone of astronomy, but for when Ison comes close, they're to big, to powerful, to clumsy!

Its all about using the right tool the the job........







You might have noticed that we recommend binoculars! But how do you go about choosing a pair? Well don't fret we've written a guide........

Photo of comet Ison and Mars Together

This fantastic image of Ison with the red planet, was taken by Ari Koutsouradis from Maryland, USA.

Ari was kind enough to provide full details of his set up and method to help anyone wanting to photograph Ison for themselves.
The photo is a composite stack of forty four, 30 second exposures at ISO1600. The camera is a Nikon 5000 mounted on a Stellarvue 80ED 80mm refractor telescope which was on a Celestron CG5-ASGT computerised tripod.

Ison with Mars taken by Ari Koutsouradis

Fantastic Animation of Ison from Savio Fong of the Galaxy Scientific Group

This amazing GIF animation of Ison was taken by president of the Galaxy Scientific Group, Savio Fong  from his observatory in Tibet on the 13th of October.
Savio Fong is based in Hong Kong but has a remote controlled robotic observatory in Tibet, based at an altitude of 4300m.
Savio is an incredible astrophotographer and has been producing some spectacular images of Ison and we're looking forward to seeing more of his pictures as Ison gets closer to perihelion in the next few weeks!

Ison animation by Savio Fong of the Galaxy Scientific Group

Savio was kind enough to provide details of his set up. The animation was made using twenty, 120 second exposures. He was using a FLI Proline 16803 camera on an APM 105/650 APO refracting telescope, seated on a Paramount ME robotic mount.

You can learn more about Savio Fong and the Galaxy Scientific Group by clicking here

Savio Fong's Robotic observatory in Tibet

Amazing video of Ison by Cliff Spohn & Terry Hancock

We are really excited today, Cliff Spohn and Terry Hancock of the DownUnder Observatory in the U.S has released the best video of Ison yet! (for those of you wondering why is called the DownUnder Observatory when its in America, Terry was born in the UK before moving to Australia as a child and now lives in the U.S!)

The video is made up of time lapse images shot by Cliff while Terry carried out the processing.

Explaining the video Terry said:

"Here is a time lapse video I created from Cliff's 24 Raw LRGB sub exposures over 72 minutes on friday morning the 11th October. There are varying degrees of brightness due to the interlacing of various filters that we used for the color image"

Terry Hancock is one a our favorite astrophotographers and produces some of the most incredible pictures we've ever seen! You can check out more of his photo's on his website here