C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) Comet

click for larger image (broadband recommended)

This image is the same as above except I stacked the photo's by registering on the comet versus the stars.  Since the comet is moving, you can see the stars are elongated.  The image is over an 8 minute period.  In the top image the stars are registered and the comet is allowed to move.  You can see in the lower picture the comet itself and the bright forked tail extening outward.

Taken from my backyard in Austin Texas.

Date:  5-16-04

Telescope: 200mm Nikon Lense        Camera:ST8XE   

Mount: Astrophysics GOTO 900

Exposure Time: LRGB 8 x 1minute exposures 1x1bin ;4 x 1 minute exposure 2x2RGB

Processing: Maxim DL, Adobe combined, had to move the color of the comet to correct for it's movement.

                   C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) Comet

This comet was discovered in 2001 by a team of astronomers at the Jet propulsion Laboratory using a 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Haleakala.  Neat stands for Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program.  In February, the comet entered the field of view of the SOHO telescope.  The comet will come very close to the sun as it made it's orbit.  It approached the Sun four times as close as Mercury.  Many people think that it might not suvive the trip and may be pulled apart by the Sun's gravetational field.  It  can be seen in the westward sky around 10pm with binoculars.  It has just in the last couple of weeks became visible in the Northern Hemisphere.  Below shows it's position this month.

The comet is rapidly moving away from the earth at this point.  The orbit of the comet can be seen below:

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