Comet 41P / Tuttle-Giacombini-Kresak
in the Evening sky
April 13, 2017

 
 While
            the sky was a bit hazy last night when I took this image around
            8:30pm, the comet - now at perihelion put on a fine showing.
            After many months of having no visible tail or appendage, the
            comet now exhibits several details of note. First, the narrow
            fan within the coma that points towards about 5:00 position is
            becoming much more visible now. Second, there is a broad cloud-like
            extension to the head on the comets lower right. The comet is
            currently in Draco near the head and was seen without any difficulty
            in the 9x63 binoculars but the two stars that bracket this comet
            here made a naked eye sighting problematic!
 

            
 Click
            here for a larger 1290 sized image


            
Field here
            is about 1 degree


Lens:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph with Baader MPCC coma corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200 
Camera: SBIG ST10XME
Exposure:  60m
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  6/10, Transparency 4/10
Outside Temperature:  45F
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL, Photoshop CS2
HOME   GALAXIES     EMISSION NEBS     REFLECTION NEBS   COMETS  
   GLOBULARS     OPEN CLUST     PLANETARIES     LINKS