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Old 29-12-2007, 01:34 AM
tornado33
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tornado33 is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Posts: 4,116
Comet Holmes enormous and tenuous

Hi all
Used the clear sky and period before moonrise to image Comet Holmes. Its now too faint for me to see visually, so took test images till I found it. All I could see was initially the central condensation and the inner coma. I was also unavoiadbly shooting through powerlines, hence some unevenness I could not get rid of completely. Star Atlas Pro indicated it is moving through a fairly rich field of galaxies, brighter members appear above the comet.

5x5 mins ISO200. Modded 350D. UV/IR filter Baader MPCC coma corrector. 6inch f3.6 Meade Cometracker Schmidt Newtonian. Hand guided.
Well I can definately say this is the "biggest" comet I have ever imaged, the coma takes up so much of the image, using the 10 inch scope would be pointless. Its definately well past its best though, rather low surface brightness now.
Scott
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