Wednesday in deep snow behind a log block house

Confession is good for the soul - but so are excuses! I did a focus test toward the moon in the Autumn. Where is "infinitity" for my camera when I do not have any filter over the lens and I set the focus manually. (Also since I am working with the camera, a Pentax K10, on a tripod, I turn the anti-shake function off, when I remember. I did last night but not for any of the previous Lovejoy sessions.) Wed and Tues nights were very cold, -17C and -24C respectively - the camera and battery worked very well - but the images are badly out of focus and I will need to redo the focus test if I continue to work at these cold temperatures. For my European friends, I found last night warm. I was in running shoes and knee-deep in snow, no solid footing for the tracking but the problems below are mine, and not the equipment.

I saw the comet through binoculars and think I may also have seen it unaided - not as bright as M31.
All exposures are 30seconds long. The wide-angle are at 18mm FL. The following shows Taurus and Lovejoy:

The next shoot is recentred and includes the 3 stars in the belt of Orion at lower left, Capella at top centre, the "Vee" of Taurus and the Pleiades, unmarked and comet Lovejoy which really shows some extreme colour, green and blue:

I zoomed in on the Pleiades - and checked the focus -

However, the images are just a little like "donuts" - and a hot coffee to go, please.
More of the same problem with the sword below Orion's belt, M42:

Again, I am fairly certain that I checked the focus and set it at my "October" +15C setting. The shot is better than on Tuesday and similarly cropped as well as zoomed.

For those of you interested in the tracker, here is a link to
iOptron’s SkyTracker Since the review gives a guided image of Orion, I include an unguided exposure, uncorrected, no photoshop or resizing taken under light polution on Jan 8:

Lovejoy from Torrance Barrens at -24C

Tried again tonight. Took nearly an hour to get there - all the time the car themometer kept sinking - is this mercury leaking from the car? Ought I to have stayed home?

Used a tracking system for the first time coupled with 3 multiple 30sec exposures:

Here is another single 30 second exposure:

I next tried  zooming in but the reading appears to be wrong. 18mm wide angle, 200mm max zoom
(Pleiades):

And then I tried the sword/M42 in Orion:

I think the correct FL for these last 2 was 200mm and for the first 3 18mm.. However, the text file says 113mm for all of them and that is not true. Camera frozen? M42 was cropped and resized so you cannot go by its appearance here. Or the value remains fixed when I switch to manual focus  - have not noticed this before and will look into that. wob

Lovejoy on Jan 13 GMT

Another very cold night with wind and -15C feeling like MINUS 30C - and you had better believe it was COLD. OK, so we are wimps - but VERY COLD WIMPS! So there.

I think the comet is brighter. Here is M42 for comparison at 93mm FL and 8sec at F/5.6

And here is the comet at identical settings, unmarked:

So it is not as bright as M42.

Thought I saw the ghost of a white-headed Mrs Snowy Owl - what do you think?

She  is in the middle foreground. And did I say it was pretty cool tonight?

Comet Lovejoy

What does one do when it is a real -27C and 10:30 at night? Well if I am stupid enough to think of that question it should not surprise you that Vicki and I went over to Gill Street to where it winds around along the shore of Lake Simcoe. And we parked in the short interval where we were allowed to park - law abiding astronomers that we are.

In German but the times refer to end of twilight and elevation of the comet, and moon rise and elevation of comet.
I am afraid I rushed the photos bcause it was chilly and clouds were moving in. So the images are not as good as you can do. The baton is being passed on:

Below are 3 30second exposures at 18mm focal length:

Same image, different processing:

You can see the cloud. We had no trouble seeing the comet even with the bright moon and cirrus. Weather forecast is not good for us but I hope you will have more success - wob