Comets

C/2004 Q4 Machholz

This close encounter between Comet Machholz and M45, The Pleiades, was a sight not to be missed.  There's even a hint of M45's blue nebulosity visible in this image.  The comet has two tails if you look closely; the ion tail (the longer of the two) is pointing away from the Sun (which is off to the right).  The shorter tail is the dust tail and is made up of comet-stuff, mainly ice and dirt which melts and dissipates more rapidly.  For some background from the discoverer of this comet, have a look at Don Machholz's website here.

Canon 300D
Canon EFS 55mm f5.6
EQ1 mount
ISO800 11x60secs
05jan2005 from 2158UT
Registax Photoshop

C/2004 Q4 Machholz

Canon 300D
Prime on Celestron 80mm f5
Manual focus
EQ1 mount
ISO1600 25x10secs
16dec2004 from 2152UT
Registax Photoshop

I was on ‘Dad Duty’ a day or so either side of the 16th. In a quiet moment (when the seemingly never ending clouds were gone for a while) I grabbed my easy-setup kit and set it up indoors, looking through an open window. The faint tail is there, honest!

C2002 C1 Ikeya Zhang

One of my first imaging attempts (with a limited dark-use camera).

Fuji 6900Z
315mm equivalent (Fuji TL-FX9) f2.8
12x4s - 2xdark frame
01apr2002 2215UT
Registax PSP

The same image as above but larger and labelled.