Comet Atlas G3 in broad daylight, Perhelion + 3 days
in the Morning sky
January 16, 10:35 am

 
 Now
            dropping in brightness a full magnitude, this comet now hovering
            around -1 magnitude is still pretty easy in the daytime sky.
            This shot with North up, shows the tail is now horizontal as
            it rounds the Sun. Close examination of the tail reveals that
            it has a dark lane running right up the center, the so called
            "shadow of the nucleus". It is not really a shadow
            of the tiny unresolved snow ball, but of the huge cloud of material
            surrounding it. Only a few days left, as it is getting dimmer
            by the day. In the evening I did see it visually for the first
            time this night, and was seen in binoculars easily as a small
            object extremely low in the southwest.

            

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1600 x 1200
            


Scope:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian 
Camera: ASI083 CMOS - IR(rgb)
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
Exposure:  50ms
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  4/10, Transparency 9/10
Outside Temperature:  40F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
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