Comet Machholz (C2004 Q2)

Science at Parramatta High
Comet Machholz - (C2004 Q2)
— January 6 2005 —

Move your mouse cursor over the image (and wait a bit) to view a legend.
More information below.

This is the comet Machholz (C2004 Q2). The little green lines at the edge of the picture point to the comet.
It appears as a faint fuzzy green spot. No tail is visible, either through the telescope or in this image.
(There is a tail - I just can't see it.)

The overlay image was created with a planetarium program.

At left is a detail portion of the above image.

Technical:
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5700
"ISO": 800
f/l: 13.7mm
exposure: 8 seconds @ f/3.0
Auto noise reduction was on. (i.e. two dark frames were taken automatically and extracted from the image, resulting in a total exposure time of 24 seconds.)

Viewing location:
151° 4' 22"E 33° 44' 3"S

Exposed at: 22:43:10 local
(beginning of second of three exposures; i.e. shutter tripped at 22:43:02)

Pleiades (the seven sisters) can be seen below and to the right of the comet.
Click the Subaru badge for more on this cluster.

More images from the next night, Jan 7 2005.
Film this time (not digital), taken on Jan 10 2005.

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