Comet Helin-Roman-Alu 1 (2005)

[tornado33]

Hi all
Just now, while looking over a deep image of the Helix nebula with Bert's Flourite 300mm f2.8 lens, I found this comet Helin-Roman-Alu 1 (2005) Even picked up its tail :)
I wasnt intending to image the comet, thinking it was too faint and far from the helix to worry about.
The image is 9x6 mins ISO 400 in skies as dark as it gets for Newcastle, with UHC S filter, modded 350D.
Scott
PS, info on this comet
http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

[h0ughy]

Laughing Scotty! what a catch, send that one in for the mags!

[tornado33]

:)
Im getting comet fever now, if I can bag this faint one theres some brighter ones about too :)
Scott

[avandonk]

Thats well spotted. When was the pic taken?
Mag 14 amazing!

bert

[avandonk]

There is a second object in your picture Scott that is not in the picture I took of the same field (Aug292006). I marked it with a fine line.
Bottom right corner pic below. To the right of the line
Bert

[iceman]

Wow Scott, you made me squint but it's definitely there!

Nice catch! Very well done.

[venus]

Truly amazing Scott

[PhotonCollector]

Well done Scott. I had noticed in STAR Atlas-PRO that there was a Comet near the Helix and wella you snagged it !

Paul M

[RB]

Excellent work Scott.

Amazing stuff, well done.

[[1ponders]]

:clap: Excellent catch Scott.

Careful mate, these asteroid and comet catches can tend to become addictive :evil:

[Lester]

Well done Scott, and to get a tail too= amazing at that faint magnitude.

[Orion]

Goodonya Scott, keep it up.

[tornado33]

thanks all
Yes youre right Bert, I will check that out.
Scott

[tornado33]

Howdy, Ive identified the other object, its galaxy ESO533-048. B magnitude of 13.7. Ive attached a full res. image, along with a similar scale map from Star Atlas Pro.
Scott
PS, good work, Bert for spotting it :)

[tornado33]

This is how lucky I was to get this comet. Back in June Id noted that Star Atlas pro showed the comet as near the Helix Nebula, but was moving away, I didnt do the Plot Path function in Star Atlas pro long enough to realise it was going to loop back round. I just did that today, running 7 day intervals back from June, see attached image. Rectangle is approx. coverage of Bert's 300mm lens on my 350D camera, so anyone whose been imaging the helix from may to june with a field wider then mine may have caught the comet. Might be worth going over the images just in case :)
Scott

[avandonk]

No not that one. Here is the same area of my picture next to yours. It should now be obvious, the elongated object below the green arrowhead. Where was Ceres when your picture was taken? Check your individual exposures to see if the object was moving.

Bert

[beren]

:thumbsup: What a catch , well done

[tornado33]

Howdy.
I dont think its Ceres as Ive done a plotted path of it here.
I belive that NGC 7310 is there too. It matches where Star Atlas pro indicated it is.
Scott

[EzyStyles]

great capture scott. i can't imagine analysing each pic . well done.

[bird]

It does seem elongated, maybe it's an asteroid? I'll pass this along to Dave Herald, a rather well known asteroid/minor planet hunter here in Canberra for his comment.

Bird

[bird]

Here's the reply I received from Dave Herald:

------begin included reply-----
I had a little trouble in that the orientation and scale of the image are not
readily apparent to me - nor the exact time. But I suspect the object is (25918)
2001 DT13, which is at mag 17.4. the following is an ephemeris for that date.

2006 08 29 000000 22 29 47.5 -20 41 39
2006 08 29 040000 22 29 39.0 -20 42 55
2006 08 29 080000 22 29 30.5 -20 44 10
2006 08 29 120000 22 29 22.1 -20 45 25
2006 08 29 160000 22 29 13.6 -20 46 40
2006 08 29 200000 22 29 05.1 -20 47 54

If you find an object on an image, one of the easiest ways to identify it is to
go to:
http://scully.harvard.edu/~cgi/CheckMP

You enter the date and coordinates, and you get a list of objects and positions.

Dave Herald
Canberra, Australia
-----end included reply-----

cheers, Bird