Originally posted by SunValley: I was in a bortle 4 zone. I just strech the histogram a bit using levels in PSE14. I also used topaz clarity to boost the saturation and luminosity of the "Aqua" channel. In a suburban sky I would probably try a hue adjustment layer and work on the light pollution gradient to desaturate it and make the green comet more visible.
Good to know. It looked a lot darker where you are then where I am which is clear since you were in a bortle 4. I wish I could head up to my lake property all the time and shoot where it is proper dark. This weekend if the weather cooperates I will likely either head out to the dark place kind of near by (darker bortle 5) or will head up to the lake (a dark bortle 3 almost a 2).
I gave it a try last night out in the park behind my house and did capture it. What I ended up with is no where near as nice as yours but the comet is there in a single shot. It is a little above the noise floor, light pollution, and humidity (we have had winter fog develop the last 2 nights). I did a stack of 12x2 minute exposures at ISO 200 and f/4 using my S-M-C Takumar 50mm f/1.4 and some fiddling in photoshop and got it to come out fairly close color wise but there is huge loss of contrast even with the stretching. I'm in a very bright bortle 8 area so am pleased with what I managed to capture in the next couple of days I should be able to post a properly processed image, probably both a straight out of the camera one and the final processed one.
I am thinking that I really need to throw some gear at the light pollution problem and get some Hoya red intensifier filters for the lenses I use for astro.
