Comet Neat
2001 Q4
Coma Region of Comet Neat on 5-20-04, mid-exposure at 3:22 UT
(5-19-04 at 11:22pm EDT)
The hoods or shells of dust are visible to the right of the inner coma
A result of individual exposures aligned on the comet's inner coma, and another exposure group aligned on the stars. These resulting two separate images were then aligned and composted in Adobe Photoshop CS. This results in an image that simulates a view from a single moment from the comet's motion through the star field. See the grayscale (B&W) images below to see that the comet actually moves across the star field during the exposures, causing the stars to appear as trails in relation to it.
Telescope: TEC140 APO Refractor @ f/7
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE CCD with CFW-8A filter wheel
Exposure: An LRGB of 17.5:5:4:4 for the comet, and
5:5:4:4 for the starfield
Guiding: ST-4 and TV85 as a guidescope, tracking on the inner coma.
Coma Region of Comet Neat on 5-20-04, mid-exposure at 3:12 UT
(5-19-04 at 11:12pm EDT)
The hoods or shells of dust are visible to the right of the inner coma.
This grayscale image shows somewhat fainter details than the color image above.
Telescope: TEC140 APO Refractor @ f/ 7
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE CCD
Exposure: 17.5 minutes (35x 30 seconds)
Guiding: ST-4 and TV85 as a guidescope, tracking on the inner coma.
Notes: A computer glitch caused a gap of a couple of minutes in the exposure sequence, resulting in the gap in the star trails
Comet Neat on 5-12-04 at 2:00 UT (5-11-04 at 10:00pm EDT)
Telescope: TV85 Refractor @ f/5.6 with a TeleVue .8x reducer
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE CCD
Exposure: 7 minutes (7x1)