Comet Shoemaker-Levy 118P
Faint Comet in Orion

 

            
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 This 14th
            magnitude object is slowly moving amongst the stars in northern
            Orion, very near the star Lambda Orionis. Visually, I was not
            able to view the comet in a 16mm nagler eyepiece, however Megastar
            always puts the comets in the right place, so I knew the object
            would be in the image. A quick 1 minute exposure revealed a dim
            glow at the expected position, and this longer one hour integration
            tracked on the comets nucleus reveals not only a slight greenish
            coloration, but a fan tail pointing northward (up) in this image.

            
The comet is currently
            1 AU from Earth, and 2 AU from the sun.

Lens:  12.5" f/5 Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200 
Exposure:  12x5m = 60 minutes
Camera:  Hutech Canon XTi
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  8/10, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  40F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2
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