Comet 17/P Holmes : Green Ghost Meets the Alpha Perseus Moving Cluster
Comet 17/P Holmes was a non-distinct magnitude 17 dot before October 23rd 2007 then it brightened by a million times to a naked eye fuzz ball at magnitude 2.0 (October 30, 2007). Why this happened nobody know at this time but it highlights how things can change without warning in the celestial sphere.
This photograph is a composition of many short exposures taken from my observatory in Douglas County. This area of the sky at the time I imaged is fairly light polluted. At the time I took this image the comet had only a very, very faint tail that is not visible except in very long exposures.
Click image for larger version (1440 x 962, 500kb).
| Photograph Information | |
|---|---|
| Date | 10.30.2007 |
| Location | Clearfield Observatory |
| Lens | Canon Macro 100mm f2.8 @ f2.8 |
| Camera | Canon 20D |
| Exposure | Stack of 36, 15 second exposures at ISO 800 |
| Notes | 55°F, 70%rh,Average transparancy and seeing. Calibrated with bias, dark and flat frames. Initial RAW conversion, registration and stacking in IRIS. Gradient removal using a mask to reduce the light pollution gradient. Noise reduction in PixInsight LE 1.02 Additional adjustments in Photoshop CS2 |
