| Designation |
Comet 2004 Q2 (Machholz)
|
| Type | Comet |
| Constellation | Perseus (at the date imaged) |
| Coordinates |
Comet head centered at RA
'03:19:47' Dec '-38:17:01' at beginning of exposures
moved to RA 03:19:39, Dec 38:22:51
|
| Magnitude | 3.9 |
| Size | |
| Distance | 32 million miles (51 million Kms) at closest (Jan 5-6, 2005) |
| Dimensions | 30 x 250 arcminutes (only part of tail in image) |
| Image Field | 90.6 x 131.3 arcminutes |
|
Notes:
|
This comet was discovered 8/27/04 by ameteur comet hunter Don Machholz. This is Don's 10th comet discovery. He bagged this one from his back porch using a 6" f/8 reflector telescope, which he purchased in 1968 for $200. |
| Comets are a sort of dirty cosmic snowball, made up of ice, dust, rock, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane. They normally reside in an area known as the Kupier belt, which is well outside of Pluto's orbit. When a comet makes it's parabolic swing through our inner solar system, the sun burns off the gas and ice forming a cloud. | |
|
|
The cloud is pushed away from the sun by charged particles known as the solar winds. The comet has 2 tails, a dust tail (yellow/green) and a bluish ion tail. The tail always faces away from the sun, not the comet's direction of travel. |
| Telescope | Takahashi FS60C f/5.9 on Losmandy G-11 with Gemini L3 |
| Focal Length | 264 mm @ f/4.4 with Takahashi focal reducer |
| Guiding | Starlight Xpress SXV guidehead through 10" SCT @ f/3.3 |
| Telescope Control | Maxim DL (V3) |
| CCD Camera |
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 - USB 2 ExView progressive
scan
1392 x 1040 (6.45 uM) pixel array (8.98 x 6.71 active area)
|
| Image Scale | 5.23 arcsec/pixel |
| Filters |
1.25" Astronomik Type II Dichroic
IR blocking filters in Astronomik filter drawer - Clear, Red, Green,
Blue
|
| Exposures |
Total exposure time: 66 minutes -Luminance 30
(6x5) minutes, RGB 6 x2 (12) each unbinned
Guided on the
comet head. Star trails processed out in Photoshop and overlaid with
2 minute RGB star field in comet's final position.
|
| Calibration | None |
| Processing Software | Maxim DL, Photoshop CS (8.0) |
| Location | Chiefland Astronomy Village, FL - 29.393 N , - 82.863 W |
| Date/Time |
01/15/04
'03:45' - '05:01' UT'
|
