Comet Ikeya-Zhang

March 31, 2001

Uploaded 4/01/02

This 3rd magnitude object is currently in the evening sky about 10 degrees above the NW horizon at the end of twilight. The shooting window is very narrow, being a contest between sunset twilight and the comet setting into the brown extinction band (left in this image) near the horizon. Both a yellow broad fan tail seen in the background as a faint glow, and the blue Ion tail are seen here. The comets head is normally blue green, however being only 7 degrees up, the reddening near the horizon has caused it to be more yellowish.

A second image furthur up from the horizon can be seen here.

Instrument:  8" f/1.5 Celestron Schmidt Camera
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
Film:  Kodak E200 pushed 1 stop
CCD Autoguider: Manually guided
Exposure:  4 mins
Filters:  UV
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 5/10, Transparency 4/10
Outside Temperature:  10 C
Processing:  Photoshop

 

 

 
 


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