Object: Comet C/2004 Q2 Machholz January 05 Transit
Date: 1/7/05 - 1/29/05
Locations: Las Cruces and Upham, NM
Tracking: Piggybacked on an LX-200 ( unguided )
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel with Canon 100mm f2 lens and TeleVue 85mm APO
Comments: This series of images was captured in January 05 as Comet Machholz passed through Taurus and into Perseus.  Starting lower - left and clockwise: At closest approach  to M45 with the nucleus roughly 2 degrees west of the cluster.  Next, a few nights later shot through a TeleVue 85mm refractor.  Then on the 12th passing near the California Nebula.  And finally on the 29th near the Perseus Double Cluster.  The green cloud surrounding the nucleus (the comet's atmosphere or coma) has a diameter of 450,000 km (roughly 3 times the size of Jupiter) yet the nucleus is probably only a few kilometers wide.   Click here for a larger image.

© Dave Dockery 2005