Comet Holmes

Comet in extreme outburst in Perseus

Uploaded 11/1/07

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This amazing comet still beams strongly at 2.6 magnitude in central Perseus. Tonight, the comets intensely yellow inner coma was easily seen even in 11x80 binoculars, with faint hints of an outer gas halo. This long exposure captures the deep emerald green of the cyanogen spectrum in the outer halo, and the leaden yellow light highlighting the core region.

The nucleus is offset above the center of the central coma, with faint jets of material seen here (look at the larger images) streaking all across the inner region. This is probably the longest exposure of any comet I have ever done! But the colors present are well revealed by the extended durations.

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Mount: Astrophysics 1200 QMD CCD Camera: SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling Guider: Meade DSI pro w/Lumicon Newt Easy Guider Exposure: RGB = 40:40:40 = 2h AstroDon RGB Combine Ratio: 1: 1.05: 1.11 Location: Payson, Arizona, Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing FWHM = 5 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 9/10 Outside Temperature: 45 F CCD Temperature: -30 C Image Processing Tools: Maxim DL: Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking PixInsight: Curves, Deconvolution, noise reduction Photoshop CS2: Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS
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