Solar System - Comets
Magnitude 8-9
05 May 2007, 22:00 UT - C8 @ f/6.3 - SXV-H9
L (CLS) = 22 x 1 min, stacked on comet nucleus
Comet 2007 E2 (Lovejoy) is now located high in the northern sky and visible all night. The brightness is slowly decreasing from a maximum of mag. 8 or so. Here is my picture made through severe light pollution.
4 July 2005, 22:06 UT - C5 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9
L = 14 x 30 sec
The NASA spacecraft Deep Impact did it, the impactor of the spacecraft hit comet Tempel 1 as planned with a spectacular smash. However, the initial brightening observed by ground-based telescopes didn't persist for long.
This image is taken 16 hours after impact in extremely poor conditions with the comet only 12 degree above the horizon, strong wind gusts, poor transparancy between clouds and towards the direction with the worst light pollution. Hardly an impressive image.
14 Jun 2005, 22:22 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9
L = 45 x 30 sec
This new comet unexpectedly started brightening a lot in beginning of June. Now the reason is evident. The comet has broken into two pieces, clearly visible in this image.
This observation has been reported by E. Jehin (ESO) in IAUC 8566 (subscription required) published on 12 July.
14 Jun 2005, 22:52 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9
L = 48 x 30 sec
Three weeks to impact! Now getting low in the western sky
30 Apr 2005, 22:24 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9
L = 11 x 30 sec
Comet Tempel caught in Virgo. This comet is the target of NASA's Deep Impact probe that will smash into the comet on July 4, 2005 in order to study the composition of the comet
 (900x674) Full resolution (1388x1039) |
C/2004 Q2 Machholz 6 Feb 2005 2005 Feb 06 at 19:04 UT - FS-60C at f/5.9 - SXV-H9 - 14 x 60 sec Comet Machholz has moved further north into Cassiopeia. |
 (900x676) Full resolution (1383x1039) Higher contrast (900x676) |
C/2004 Q2 Machholz 08 Jan 2005 2005 Jan 08 at 21:15 UT - 135/2.8 lens at f/4.0 - SXV-H9 - 15 x 60 sec Well, back in the light pollution. The comet near M45, could just fit both objects within the frame. |
 (900x672) Full resolution (1392x1040) |
C/2004 Q2 Machholz 04 Jan 2005 2005 Jan 04 at 22:15 UT (Denmark) - FS-60C at f/4.8 - SXV-H9 - LRGB = 7:3:3:3 x 60 sec The comet at near maximum brightness, made during holiday in Denmark (dark sky!). Due to the rapid movement of the comet the stars were removed from the colour exposures before LRGB processing, thus no star colours... |
 (900x675) 21 x 60 sec aligned on comet (900x699) |
C/2004 Q2 Machholz 19 Dec 2004 2004 Dec 19 at 23:10 UT - FS-60C at f/4.8 - SXV-H9 - 8 x 60 sec My first image of the new comet. It was located in the direction of some really bad light pollution. View to the south over my neighbourhood. That photo was taken with digital camera from the roof at Sterrenwacht Rijswijk earlier the same night |
C/2003 K4 (LINEAR)
Magnitude 7
28 Jul 2004, 21:30 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - L = 17 x 60 sec
Another fine comet this year. I caught this one while passing close to globular cluster NGC 5466. Note the little galaxy, PGC 50187, to the right of the comet.
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)
05 Jun 2004, 22:00 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - L = 60 x 30 sec - exposures aligned on comet
Smaller but still quite bright.
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)
Magnitude 3-4
16 May 2004, 21:45 UT - FFC 3.5/500 - SXV-H9 - LRGB = 30:6:6:6 x 30 sec - exposures aligned on comet
A wider field view of the comet with the flat field camera. The upper image is processed like the one from May 15. For the lower image the star trails were removed using a kind of median combination. A second stack aligned on a star was made. The stars were removed on a copy of this stack using a median filter, this copy was subsequently subtracted from the original to reveal the stars only. The "comet" and the "stars" were then added together to provide the final luminance image. Colours than applied using LRGB.
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)
Magnitude 3-4
15 May 2004, 21:20 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - LRGB = 15:6:6:6 x 30 sec - exposures aligned on comet
The beautiful comet of May 2004, although a little bit fainter than predicted. The colour exposures were processed to remove the stars and then combined with the luminance exposure using standard LRGB processing.
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) - core
15 May 2004, 21:35 UT - C8 at f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - 12 x 10 sec - unbinned
This higher resolution image shows some details in the core of the comet. Note the two pronounced bow shocks. There is also a hint of a jet pointing upwards.
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) - jets
The image above processed with a Larson-Sekanina filter in Astroart. There is a strong jet pointing upwards and also two smaller jets at the two o'clock and five o'clock positions
C/2002 T7 (Linear)
Magnitude 7.8
24 Jan 2004, 20:40 UT - C8 @ f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - 34 x 30 sec - exposures aligned on comet
Will reach naked eye brightness during spring, but then no longer visible from my latitude.
Periodic comet 2P Encke
Magnitude ? (nucleus)
23 Oct 2003, 21:30 UT - C8 @ f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - 11 x 60 sec - exposures aligned on comet
Slightly brighter and little more coma.
Periodic comet 2P Encke
Magnitude 15.0 (nucleus)
15 Oct 2003, 21:56 UT - C8 @ f/6.3 - SXV-H9 - 14 x 60 sec - exposures aligned on comet
A very early image of comet Encke, it is almost stellar showing only a faint hint of coma.
Comet 2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) - 04 Apr 2002
Magnitude 3,4
04 Apr 2002, 19:28 UT - 35 mm lens at f/4 - MX516 - 10 x 10 sec
This naked-eye comet was captured just before it disappeared behind the roof of one of my neighbours. On this particular night it passed very close to M31, the Andromeda galaxy. The sky was still quite bright at this time and I had to remove a strong gradient from the images.
Comet 2000 WM1 (Linear) - 14 Nov 2001 at 22:12UT
Magnitude 7,2
14 Nov 2001, 22:12UT - C8 f/6,3 - MX516 - 19 x 30 sec guided - exposures aligned on comet
This image shows the comet in Perseus. Reports indicated a magnitude of 7,2 this night.
Comet C/2001 A2 (Linear) - 16 July 2001 at 23:30UT
Magnitude 5,3 - diameter 20'
16 July 2001, 23:30UT - 135 mm f/2,8 lens - MX516 - 5,5 min (11 x 30 sec)
My first comet image. The comet was located in Pegasus. The sky was quite poor with the comet hardly visible with binoculars. Clouds coming in forced me to stop imaging, a little bit more exposure would have been preferable
Observers from around the world reports a magnitude of about 5,3 and size 20' on this date. I didn't try to estimate the magnitude due to the difficulty of seeing it at all