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CCD Imaging
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang
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PJM's Astronomy Gallery
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An evening of searching in the tree-line eventually allowed capture of Comet C1/2002 Ikeya-Zhang by MX5 CCD camera; it was worth the wait ! Anticipating that the comet would be in a tree line and potentially disappearing behind houses, star hopping to it's predicted position near Mirach was started at early twilight. The search progressed via Saturn, Mars, Hamal to Mirach, and yes, Mirach was in the trees. Hopping from Mirach to the comet's predicted position proved no success, though I was spot on the predicted target site with my 21 by 15 arcmin. field of view.
A check with binoculars revealed a nebulous smudge to the southwest of Mirach on the slightly misty evening. The finder telescope showed lots of tree branches and a faint star (?) some distance from the central field of view. Nothing to lose, I moved the telescope to it's position and Eureka ! I made images at 1 and 2 minutes as fast as possible.
It happened that the comet was some 36 arcmin. southeast of the predicted position and hence outside my CCD field of view. The comet was adjacent the star TYC 2295-661-1 of magnitude 10.57 in Pisces.
28 March 2002
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Comet C1/2002 Ikeya-Zhang imaged at prime focus with a 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian at 20:44 hours UT on 28 March 2002 with no filters. Exposure time of 2 minutes. Field of view is 21 by 15 arcmin. Predicted magnitude of 4.1. Adjacent star is TYC 2295-661-1 of magnitude 10.57 in Pisces.
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Thanks to the Cunniffes for dark sky, and strategic relocation of the telescope in the garden the comet was in open sky, but at low altitude on a slightly misty evening. The comet was located in binoculars but only as a a very small nebulous area to the southwest of Mirach. Imaging was again made at 1 and 2 minute exposures. However, the early start allowed some red, green and blue filter images for a colour photograph.
29 March 2002
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang on 29 March at 20:17 hours UT in Andromeda. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image with red, green and blue filters at exposure times of 1:2.5:2 min.
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang on 29 March at 19:55 hours UT in Andromeda. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image of 1 minute with no filters. Stars above the comet are GSC 2299-673 (Mag. 11.13) and GSC 2299-443 (Mag. 11.64). The comet's magnitude was predicted as 4.1.
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There appears to be some debate from the computed orbital period of approx. 350 years whether this comet is the bright comet of 1661 and earlier. If not there could be an even brighter comet on it's way !
See images of Ikeya-Zhang and other comets at NASA.
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