Vern’s Weblog

Here  is another image of comet 96P Machholz from last Sunday morning between 2:45 am and 3:20 am.  It is getting less bright each day, currently about magnitude +12.5 to +13.  Its moving quite fast so its difficult to stack.  NGC 7003 was in the same field at the time the images were taken.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera.  Location was Cactus Flats North, 7 miles east of Briggsdale, CO.  Temperature was  46°F, no wind, sky was clear, and turbulence about 6/10. Transparency was good although humidity was high — dew everywhere. Registax4 used dark subtact, flat field correct, align, and stack approximately 4 minutes of video. Stellacam set to 10/14 gain, 256 integration (8 sec), and medium gamma.