Categories: AstrophotosCometsISON

Beautiful Comet ISON Timelapse and Recent Images

Comet ISON, as seen on October 21, 2013 from Marion, Ohio, USA, using a QHY9 monochrome CCD camera and TEC 140 F7, 5 inch Refractor telescope. Credit and copyright: Cliff Spohn and Terry Hancock.

This beautiful new view of Comet ISON comes from a collaborative effort between astrophotographers Cliff Spohn in Ohio and Terry Hancock in Michigan, taken on October 21, 2013. “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,” said Terry via email. “Credit goes to Cliff for capturing the object while I did the calibration, stacking in CCDStack post processing in CS5 and video editing.”

You can see a timelapse video below, covering 93 minutes of imaging, again on October 21. It’s obvious ISON is still intact and it continues to bright, as it is currently about magnitude 9.

More recent images:

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Update: This new one is just in from astrophotographer Damian Peach, and its a beauty! Taken on October 24.

Comet C/2012 S1 ISON captured passing fairly close to the bright barred spiral galaxy M95 in Leo on October 24, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.

Comet ISON C/2012 S1, Mars, & Regulus on 10-18-2013
Warrenton, Virginia 6:27am EST
Canon Rebel Xsi & 170mm lens F6.3, ISO 400,
6 minutes 6 secs. Credit and Copyright: John Chumack.

From John Chumack: “I just had to try just a telephoto on Comet ISON while it was near Mars,” John said via email. This view shows Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) near Mars and Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. This image was taken on October 18, 2013 from
Warrenton, Virginia at 6:27am EST looking over Washington D.C.

Triple conjunction of Comet ISON, Mars, Regulus on October 14, 2013, as seen from Payson, Arizona, USA. Credit and copyright: Chris Schur.

This nice image comes from Chris Schur from Arizona, taken on October 14, and is also of the conjunction. “As you may recall, on this date of 10/14 the three objects were in a perfect line going from south to north in Leo,” Chris said via email. “What a spectacular sight in the 11 x 80 binoculars! While the comet was quite faint, a short 1/4 degree of tail could be seen, and the gorgeous blue and orange colors of the planets.”

Chris used a Canon Xti, ASA800 with 10 minutes total integration time, with a 80mm f/4.8 Ziess APO refractor on a Televue GEM. Taken from Payson, Arizona at 5,100 feet elevation.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/