clear sky chart

Job 9:9

Job 9:9-10
9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
10 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
NIV

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2 1/13/15

I am sooo far behind in posting to the blog. I've been posting to Facebook, but I really should update this site. I'll go ahead and try to catch up on the 2 years since I've posted.

I've been somewhat active in imaging the sky, and my images have been improving over time. I'm learning how to get better images from my own driveway which rival what I've done at Cherry Springs in the past. The first image I'm going to talk about briefly is this image I took on 1/13/2015. I dont image comets very often, but Comet Lovejoy was in the perfect location, almost at zenith when this was taken. The image was taken with a 6", f/5 Newtonian from my driveway in New Middletown, OH.

Comet Lovejoy is a long period comet, originating in the Oort Cloud.  It has a period of about 8000 years.
The blue-green color of the comet and tail is caused by water and organic molecules fluorescing under the ultraviolet light from the sun.  It peaked at about 4th magnitude about the time this image was taken.