Comet Ikeya-Zhang: This was a spectacular comet in late March and early April of 2002. Unfortunately, due to the trees on my Western horizon and the virtually constant overcast in Seattle, it was not visible to me until it had climbed much higher in the sky, and moved much farther away. By the time I imaged it, it had slipped to magnitude 5.4 (still quite bright, but not naked eye), and, sadly, the magnificant tail had all but disappeared. The comet's motion is essentially parallel to its tail, toward the lower left corner of the image.

Technical Information:

Exposure: A median combine of 24 one-minute exposures, all unbinned.

Equipment: 10" LX200 at f/4.6, and an SBIG ST-7E camera/CFW-8 color filter wheel

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: CCDSoft V5.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats) and registered in AIP4WIN. Median combine performed in CCDSoft. I used a median combine to eliminate the star trails, since the comet is still moving through the star field quite fast.

Location: My yard in Redmond, Washington, elevation 500'.

Date: All images taken during the night of 4/23/02.

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous.

CCD Temperature: -25C

Copyright Mark de Regt, 2002