Video of Comet Siding Spring Approaching Mars

I observed comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring approach Mars over about an hour and a half last night. At that time the comet was a little too far from Mars to fit both in the field of view of my main 8" telescope, so I used my widefield refractor instead. I took a continuous series of 3 minute exposures from a location with a clear view of the western horizon, and watched the comet for as long as the atmosphere would let me. Once it got down to about 6 degrees atmospheric extinction rendered the comet invisible, and differential atmospheric refraction began to crunch the star field. I aligned the images in Deep Sky Stacker (which attempts to compensate for the atmospheric refraction distortion) and put them into this time lapse video:

I also rendered a version with music; some people like it, some people don't, so I'll keep both versions up.

a reply to: ngchunter

thanx for the share amazing

a reply to: ngchunter

I observed comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring approach Mars over about an hour and a half last night

I can't imagine how spectacular the view from Mars would have been.

Thanks for the video...keep up the great work.

Hi, space fans.

[A little topic inside this topic.]

When you show something in space,
THAT is the music TO USE ! ! !:
www.youtube.com...

Listen to other ## GRANDIOSE ## music form him !:
Ty Unwin. His music for the TV series "How earth made us" !
www.youtube.com...
THERE it IS at 1:05 minute !!

It all comes from:
wn.com...

F & S. B-)

OHHH ! I forgot:
I guess we will also see cool stuf from:
marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov...
or
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Blue skies.

The rovers should have some pretty good pics of this shouldn't they?

Real bummer observing in New England.
Closest approach of comet in broad daylight, and then Mars/Comet ready to go below the horizon at sunset.
Thanks for the video, that was great to see.

originally posted by: ketsuko
The rovers should have some pretty good pics of this shouldn't they?

Well I wouldn't hold your breath on breathtaking images, but Curiosity rover is taking pictures of it right now as I type this. It will be a while yet before the imaging is completed and the images are sent back to earth.

That little streamer that occurs at the end of the loop; is that an artifact of cutting the clip, or did you perhaps catch a small meteroid? Thanks.

originally posted by: charlyv
That little streamer that occurs at the end of the loop; is that an artifact of cutting the clip, or did you perhaps catch a small meteroid? Thanks.

A plane actually, it flew through the last exposure I used for the time lapse.

originally posted by: ngchunter

originally posted by: charlyv
That little streamer that occurs at the end of the loop; is that an artifact of cutting the clip, or did you perhaps catch a small meteroid? Thanks.

A plane actually, it flew through the last exposure I used for the time lapse.

Cool. Nice job on the video work, very clear. The stacking capability looks awesome.
I just got a NexImage setup for my C8, hopefully have the time to still catch this comet.