Is this the comet nucleus or?

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Marc Monarcha avatar
After stacking 499 pictures at 135mm, I noticed that there was something weird in the head of the comet. Could this be the nucleus or?
Jan Erik Vallestad avatar
This is a stacking artifact. The nucleus would just show as a tiny dot similar to a star, given that it's not entirely over-exposed that is.

EDIT: Judging by the image I take it that you have stacked it the normal way by aligning on the stars, not the comet core?
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Marc Monarcha avatar
This is a stacking artifact. The nucleus would just show as a tiny dot similar to a star, given that it's not entirely over-exposed that is.

EDIT: Judging by the image I take it that you have stacked it the normal way by aligning on the stars, not the comet core?

It is normal stacking using siril
Jan Erik Vallestad avatar
Marc Monarcha:
This is a stacking artifact. The nucleus would just show as a tiny dot similar to a star, given that it's not entirely over-exposed that is.

EDIT: Judging by the image I take it that you have stacked it the normal way by aligning on the stars, not the comet core?

It is normal stacking using siril

Ok, that's how the artifact has been created. The comet has become streaked, much like stars streak if you don't track when imaging, and the rejection algorithms have also rejected parts of it which is why the dark area is present. So this stack will only serve as a star layer, in order to get the comet properly aligned you need to go through a series of other steps as well. I only use Pixinsight, but maybe this info page by Siril will be of some help to you: https://siril.org/tutorials/comet/
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Marc Monarcha avatar
Marc Monarcha:
This is a stacking artifact. The nucleus would just show as a tiny dot similar to a star, given that it's not entirely over-exposed that is.

EDIT: Judging by the image I take it that you have stacked it the normal way by aligning on the stars, not the comet core?

It is normal stacking using siril

Ok, that's how the artifact has been created. The comet has become streaked, much like stars streak if you don't track when imaging, and the rejection algorithms have also rejected parts of it which is why the dark area is present. So this stack will only serve as a star layer, in order to get the comet properly aligned you need to go through a series of other steps as well. I only use Pixinsight, but maybe this info page by Siril will be of some help to you: https://siril.org/tutorials/comet/

Thanks!
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