Comet Machholz with the Hyades/Pleiades Shot

Hey all, I managed to get this shot of the comet machholz in taurus with the hyades and pleiades clusters on tuesday night the 5th using film, yes film!!! - fuji superia 400 with a 10 minute exposure, 90mm lens at f4. It's turned out ok considering my backyard has some light pollution



Just would like to share it with you all, hope you like it

Keith..

Nice shot Keith. I see you got good foucs and tracking in that image.
Up to now, I've been using ISO800. However, it seems very sensitive to the faintest traces of light pollution. Would I be better off using ISO400 and increasing the exposure time??

Hi,
I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but it looks in that photograph very similar to what I saw through the scope last night, but do I see two very faint tails on the comet? One ponting downwards and one upish. Both tails look to me they are representing about ten minutes to 6 not sure if thats am or pm :lol: . But perhaps it's my imagination, but it did look like it through the scope as well.
Bill H.

Hi,
I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but it looks in that photograph very similar to what I saw through the scope last night, but do I see two very faint tails on the comet? One ponting downwards and one upish. Both tails look to me they are representing about ten minutes to 6 not sure if thats am or pm :lol: . But perhaps it's my imagination, but it did look like it through the scope as well.
Bill H.

From what I can tell from my photos and the others I have seen on this site is that there is no tail. At least not with the exposures we have been taking. From the direction of the comet's travel I would say those tail-like features are similar to the bow-wave on a ship. In this case it is created by material "boiling off" the front of the comet and being forced into a bow-wave through interaction with the solar wind. A tail would usually be in line with the direction of travel if made of heavy matter. Lighter matter would be forced directly away from the sun by the solar wind. The features we are seeing on Machholz are like neither of these cases as both features are at the same angle either side of the direction of travel.

The contour map I created from my raw image helps reinforce my view.

Any other ideas, readers?

Viewing last night with a 222mm Dob it was possible to decern the tail pointing in the 8 o'clock position for about 2 field widths making a tail of about 3 degrees.
I reprocessed some images taken last night to try to see the tails. See the other thread for this subject.

Michael Scully

Thanks for the comments guys, Michael, Yeah I think ISO400 would be better, increasing the exposure time and maybe f5.6 would be good to get rid of that light pollution, the tracking would have to be pretty good as well, why don't you try that when those clouds roll away?

Bill, James & Michael, I think there is a hint of 2 tails, you can see 2 tails at 10 and 6 o'clock positions, but other people observing and photographing are reporting the same thing, 2 tails but visually very short.

Keith