Comet Machholz
2004 Q2
Comet Machholz on 01-11-05, mid-exposure at 03:20 UT
(01-10-05 at 10:20 pm EST)
click on the image for an animation of the comet's movement through the star field during this exposure
The comet's blue-tinted ion tail is pointing to the left and shows some structure. The dust tail fans out towards the bottom and has a slight reddish tint. North is up.
Telescope: Takahashi FS60C Refractor @ f/4.7
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE CCD with CFW-8A filter wheel
Location: Saugus, MA
Exposure: A total LRGB exposure of 144 minutes (36:36:36:36), each filter exposure group made up of twelve 3 minute sub exposures. Sky conditions were poor as limited transparency kept the limiting visual magnitude to vary from only 4 to 3.5
Guiding: ST-4 and TEC140 as a guidescope, tracking on the inner coma of the comet. The comet's slow motion relative to the background stars causes the stars to appear as trails here. The star trails appear as colored dashes due to the separate 3 minute sub exposures taken individually through clear (L), red, green and blue filters.