COMETS
C2023 A3
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS  (C/2023 A3)  10/15/2024
Notice the faint anti-tail pointing downward torard the sun. This very rare event
happens when the earth crosses the comet's oribital plane as it did October 13 - 15.

Comet C2009 P1 Garradd on 9/20/2011. Mouse over for zoom view (about one degree vertical field of view).

Comet Hartley 103P photographed on 10-07-2010.  The two images in this slideshow are 50 minutes apart showing the motion near NGC869 and NGC884.  The photographs were taken with the Canon T2i for 10 seconds at 6400 ASA and f/2.8.  The focal length of the Tamron lens was 210mm.
Stacked with Registar and processed with FITS Liberator 3 and Photoshop CS5.
 
Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) taken on 2/22/2009.  The comet is very close to the earth, so the motion is fast across the star field as shown in these fifteen 20 second frames (total elapsed time is 6 minutes 21 seconds).
Comet Lulin 2/2009
Comet Lulin, Feb. 2009
This is the above 15 frames stacked with the comet position constant to improve the comet image.  The resulting star trails are due to the comet motion.
Holmes 11/02/07
Comet Holmes 11/02/2007

Photographs taken October 28 - November 02, 2007 from Lost Maples State Park.

Comet Holmes, 17P had intensified almost 1,000,000 times a few days before this set was taken.  It was still growing in size during this sequence.   These images are scaled to match in size and overlaid.  The outer diameter of the comet increased from about 6' to over 14' during these 5 days.

73P_b.jpg (22050 bytes)

Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann (73P) was photographed from Bandera on May 12, 2008 at 4:00 A.M.  Photographed with a D-60 digital camera at 1000 ASA, 50mm lens at f/ 1.8, and 10 second exposure. 

Comet 2004 Q2 (Machholz)

Comet 2004 Q2 (Machholz) was photographed as it approached the Perseus constellation on January 13 and 15, 2005.  Both photographs in this slide show   were taken with a D-60 digital camera.  Lens: 70mm.  Exposure: 10 seconds @ f2.8, ASA 400.   These photographs demonstrate the rapid motion of a close comet (about 30 million miles) relative to the background star field.

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Machholz, 1/13/2005


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