Comet Lulin

This evening was "members night" a the Austin Astronomical Society, Canyon of Eagles observation site. After a windy evening, the weather settled down around midnight. About that time, Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) rose high enough to observe.

The comet was easily located in binoculars just below Beta-Libra which in turn was few degrees below Saturn. I was able to observe through our Orion 100ED refractor and a neighboring 12" Dobsonian. In the Dobsonian, I was clearly able to see both tails, one sharply defined (dust) and the other more diffuse and dim (ion).

I imaged the comet with a Celestron Onyx 80ED and a Canon 450 DSLR. I was able to get four 10min exposures at ISO 1600 between 00:53 and 01:35 CDT 2012.09.22. The telescope was guided on the core of the comet during each exposure. I manually stacked the images in PixInsights. Since the stars were already trailed in each frame, I just stacked as-is. In image, you can see pink color in dust tail and blue-grey tinge in ion tail with knotty texture.

Accipiter Catches Dove in Yard

While visiting with Danielle's parents in Las Cruces, we got a great chance to see an Accipiter up close.  We are still not positive of the ID but are leaning towards identifying it as a Sharp-Shinned Hawk rather than a Cooper's Hawk. While indoors, we heard a bird strike the bay window.  When we went to check, we found the hawk in possession of a White-Wing Dove. We are not sure whether the dove hit the window while escaping the hawk or that the pair of them hit the window.

We were absolutely amazed by how close the hawk let us get to photograph it, though it kept a wary eye on us.  The first image is right after the kill.  The second two images are one hour later.  The hawk had dragged the dove under some bushes and made good progress on its meal.