Comet Gerradd
7.5 magnitude comet in Hercules

 

            

            
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 The
            comet has remained bright, and now sports a dual forked tail.
            The upper one is blue and is the Ion tail, the lower fan is mostly
            dust and some coma gasses. The head is quite greenish from Cyanogen,
            and has a nice stellar nuclear condensation. Visually, I could
            only see a round wisp in the 11 x 80 binoculars and little more
            with the 8 inch when I centered it visually. (These days thats
            about the only time I ever actually look through a telescope!)
            This comet may be around for a few more months, but will be getting
            way too close to the western sky line soon. I think this may
            be the last good shot I get.
Lens:  8" f/4 Orion Astrograph Newtonian + Baader Coma Corr.
Platform:  Homemade GEM
Exposure:  1h
Location:  Hapyy Jack, Arizona
Elevation:  6800 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  7/10, Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature:  42F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2
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