Image in Red light to emphasize the dust component. Select an image size for a larger view: 800 x 600

Larson Sekanina filter applied to reveal jets in tail pointing upward. Select an image size for a larger view: 800 x 600

Now in the southern sky just west of Lepus, this comet is becoming very bright fast. An easy naked eye object at 5.5 magnitude, the comet appears as mostly tailless in the finderscope. But photographically it is becoming much more interesting. This image was taken last night, and is in red light to enhance the dust component of the tail, which shows as a broad diffuse fan on the right side of the head. A few rays from the ion tail can be seen also faintly pointing upward. The lower image was filtered with the well known comet filter - the Larson-Sekanina filter to remove any circularly symmetrical brightness profiles, and leave the non symmetrical data - in this case the tail rays. (Astro Art has the LS filter)

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Newtonian
Platform:   Astrophysics AP1200
Camera:  ST8i Water cooled
Exposure:  10 mins
Filters:  R
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5100 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 5/10, Transparency 5/10
Outside Temperature:  0 C
Processing: Photoshop CS, Maxim DL
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