This is a short animation made from two 10 minute exposures and one two minute exposure.  During the exposures the STAR 2000  controlled my 8" LX 200 and tracked on the comet nucleus.  This caused the stars in the image to trail as the telescope followed the comet.  The two minute exposure was taken at 10:02 UT.  There is not much of a tail visible in this image, but the coma does spread out slightly to the right.  The calculated magnitude of the comet was 7.1 when the image was taken.  The brighter stars in the image are magnitude 10.2.    Click here to go back.