Comet Machholz was at its peak when this image was taken. The comet reached near 4th magnitude, and could be detected with the naked eye from my surburban backyard. Comet Machholz put on a good show if you had a telescope to view it. The comet was high in the sky and visible most of the night. I got home late and it took me some time to set up the telescope. By the time that I took this image the comet was getting low in the west and was only about 30 degrees above the horizon. The comet was over 34 million miles from Earth at the time that this image was taken.
This is an RGB composite CCD image taken with an ST-8E and CFW-8 color filter wheel using a Takahashi FCT-150 telescope with a reducer operating at f5.9. This image was taken from my backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Constellation: Perseus
RA:03h 23m 20.0s Dec:+34d 35' 37.8".
January 13, 2005 at 0806 U.T.
Image by Sid Leach
Scottsdale, Arizona.
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