Comets Archives - Astrophography

Comet Linear C/2001 A2

C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) is a non-periodic comet from the Oort cloud discovered by LINEAR on 15 January 2001. — Comet Linear C/2001 A2 Canon F1 and 100mm f/2.8 lens, 14min exposure on Kodak ED200 slide film

Comet Linear C/2001 A2 photographed from Indian Ridge. Indian ridge is a remote observing site East of Vida, OR. Latitude: 44°00′ 4.10”North Longitude: 122°15’26” West 5242’ Seeing: E Transparency: 6-7 Bortle: 2 SQM: 21.68. Mount: Losmandy G11 Stepper motors, non-GOTO. Telescope: Celestron C11 used for guiding. Canon F1 with Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens piggyback. Kodak Elite Chrome 200 slide film pushed 1, 14 min. exposure. Slide # 5 was scanned with a Nikon ED5000. The Tiff file was then processed in Photoshop.

Only chance in Oregon to see the comet and view the Leonid Meteor Shower. November 18, 2001 9:30 PM till 2:30 AM November 19,2001. Very cold and 2 feet of snow, around 0-10 degrees with winds of 10-15 mph. Images were shortly limited to only a few minutes. Ice would form on the lens when exposed to the air. Alcohol was used to clear the ice and clean the lens filter. Lucky to capture this comet with just a 100mm f/2.8 lens. The comet is in the center, at 5 o’clock below a red star, Comet Linear is greenish with a slight halo.

Comet Linear C/2001 A2 was discovered by LINEAR on 15 January 2001. LINEAR, the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, program is expanding astronomers’ knowledge about the population of asteroids and comets in our solar system.

Comets: Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd); Comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner and Comet C/2023 A3

08-27-04:47:16 UT Latitude: 44° 2’ 07.73” North Longitude: 120° 50’ 43.21” West; 3855 ft. Juniper Acres, 30 miles East of Bend, OR Seeing: E Transparency: 6 ; Bortle-2 SQM: 21.74 Telescopes / Optics: TEC 140mm f/7 980mm Mount: AP1200 Camera: SBIG ST10xme CCD & CFW10 FOV: 48’ x 32’ FWHM: 2.85” Filter: Astrodon LRGB series E Gen. 2 (Ha 9nm used for Luminance) LRGB 15min. Information: Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) passing near Globular Star Cluster M 71 (NGC 6838); processed CCDStack2, Photoshop CS6

9/11/2018 09:51:36 UT Latitude: 33° 29′ 01.48″ North Longitude: 116° 43′ 19.24″ West Elevation: 4321 ft. Jupiter Ridge #4 Observatory, OCA site, near Anza, CA. Seeing: E Transparency: 6 Bortle: 4 SQM: 20.85 Telescopes / Optics: TMB f/4.8 fl/384mm Mount: AP1200 Camera: SBIG ST10xme CFW10 Total exposure FOV: 133.4′ x 89.5′ Filter: Astrodon LRGB series E Gen. 2 FWHM: 2.1 Information: Comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, Captured with CCDSoft; RGB= 60″ea LRGB= 12 min. total exposureCS6

Comet C/2023 A3 10-14-2024 7:37 PM — Comet C/2023 A3, 10-14-2024 7:37 PM; taken form Camino De La Torre, Temecula, CA Bortle 6 skies Canon 7D II Tripod 2sec. f/2.8 100mm ISO 320

Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24,2004

Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat was discovered on August 4, 2001 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Team (NEAT). This comet spent most of its time in the southern hemisphere until May 2004 when it went North and brightened.

Comet C/2001 Q4 NEAT, came within 0.34 astronomical units ( 1 AU = 92,955,807 Miles ) 31.6 million miles of earth. It reached perihelion (closest approach in it’s orbit) on May 15, 2004 . This hyperbolic comet will be flung out of our solar system, never to be seen again.

AU or Astronomical Unit (roughly earth’s distance from the sun) 93,000,000 miles.

I was lucky to have a clear May night in Oregon to image Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24, 2004.

Comet IkeaZang March 2002

Comet IkeaZang March 1, 2002 South of Veneta, Oregon Dark Sky Site
Canon F1, Tokina 300mm F/2.8, Piggyback, Takahashi FS78 Guide Guide scope
Losmandy G11, E200 pushed 2 -3
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) to the right, just above trees.

Comet McNaught C/2006 P1

Comet McNaught C/2006 P1 was a great naked eye comet. However in Oregon, it appeared while we had a snow storm in Eugene. The above image was taken at Fern Ridge Reservoir with thousands of Canadian Geese flying about, some of them appear in this image. The comet was very close to the sun at this latitude and very difficult to image.