Comet Holmes 2007

3-layer composite image of Holmes, with north up and east left, UT 20071102 3:00. I had excellent transparency on this night, and the tail appears more bluish. The previous red color may have been artifact.

  • Optics: Celestron C11 hyperstar at f/1.8
  • Mount: Celestron CGE
  • Guiding: Metaguide with separate guidescope and lumenera SKYnyx 2-0M
  • Camera: SXVF-H9c
  • For central region, used video from lumenera, 2000 frames wavelet processed in Registax
  • Image Details: 42x2m, min/max rejected, flats and bias but no darks
  • North is up and East is left, so tail points to SW.
  • Processed in ImagesPlus, with DDP. Composited in Picture Window Pro
  • Date and Location: UT 20071102 03:00. Hudson Valley, NY.

C11 Hyperstar image of the comet showing a clear reddish tail that extends out of the frame. The field is approximately 1x0.75 degrees wide

  • Optics: Celestron C11 hyperstar at f/1.8
  • Mount: Celestron CGE
  • Guiding: Metaguide with separate guidescope and lumenera SKYnyx 2-0M
  • Camera: SXVF-H9c
  • Image Details: 75x1m, min/max rejected, flats and bias but no darks
  • North is up and East is left, so tail points to SW. Star near tip is SAO 24231
  • Processed in ImagesPlus, with DDP and slight LR devonvolution
  • Date and Location: UT 20071031 04:00. Hudson Valley, NY.

Animation of comet over nearly 3 hours on the night of October 27 (starting at 2:00 UT Oct. 28). Over the three hours you can just see increasing separation of the material from the nucleus. Note that on the scale of the earth, the changing gap amounts to 1000-3000 miles over 3 hours. The images were captured and stacked in Registax, and details brought out with Wavelet processing.

Note that the solid appearance at the center is not the nucleus itself, since it is only approximately 1 km large.

  • Optics: Celestron C11 at f/10.5
  • Mount: Celestron CGE
  • No Guiding
  • Camera: Lumenera SKYnyx 2-0M
  • Image Details: Series over 3 hours, with frames every 5 minute
  • Captured with Lucam Recorder and processed in Registax with Wavelets
  • 0.52" per pixel
  • Date and Location: October 27-8, 2007. Hudson Valley, NY.

Approximately October 26, 2:00 UT. Composite of 8s and 40s images to show both the bright central region and the extended shell. SXVF-H9c and C11 at f/10.5. Guided with MetaGuide using mag 9 star, OAG, and Lumenera camera. Processed in ImagesPlus and composited in Picture Window Pro.

Same time as above, direct combination of 8s exposures to show detail in the center, with just a hint of the outer green coma. This is not a composite. Processed in ImagesPlus.

Same time as above, Lumenera image of central region with and without wavelet processing. Jet structure is clearly visible and remarkably similar to the structure at the top of the page, two days later.

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