Comet ISON: Incoming

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - October-November, 2013
Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) – October-November, 2013

Object Name: Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)
Object Type: Sun-grazing Comet
Location: Near Grant, AL, USA
Dates: October 8 & 26, November 2 & 11, Before Sunrise
Media: Graphite Pencil on Strathmore Tracing Paper
Equipment: 20″ F/5 Newtonian with 13mm Ethos, 35mm Plossl (Russell Optics), 35mm Deep View (Orion), “Red Light Box” software, i-Pad (for backlighting the tracing paper).
Weather: Excellent Transparency and Seeing on all dates.

These four sketches show the evolution of Comet ISON over time during October-November 2013. At first, the comet was barely visible. No nucleus or dust tail could be discerned, but over time they became apparent. Each drawing is a stack of individual black and white sketches using the indicated filters. They were edited and stacked using Photofiltre and Canvas software.

–James M.

3 thoughts on “Comet ISON: Incoming”

Leave a Reply