Comet 103P/Hartley on 7 and 8 October, 2010 |
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Above: 103P/Hartley (the fuzzy at lower right) and the Double Cluster in Perseus photographed in blue light at approximately 2300 EDT on 7 October, 2010. The cluster to the left is NGC 884 and on the right is NGC 869. Stack of guided Five-minute exposure made with an SBIG STL-11000M camera on a Takahashi FSQ-106 refractor. |
| Below: 103P/Hartley in RGB at approximately 2245 EDT on 8 October, 2010. Part of NGC 884 is visible at top right. 103P/Hartley is moving quickly against the fixed background stars because it is only about 1/10 of an astronomical unit (the mean Earth-Sun distance) from Earth. The comet has a very large coma, but this 90-second exposure was insufficient to reveal its tail. Stack of 90-second unguided exposures made with a Canon 40D camera on a Takahashi 150mm refractor with a focal reducer. |
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