Comet 2011L4 PanSTARRS on Mar 14, 2013


f=350mm prime focus

Date & Time: Mar 14 2013, 18:47 JST(+0900)
Composed 5 shots with 5 second exposed
Optical: miniBORG 60ED (f=350mm, F5.8)
Auto-guided with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Digital Camera: Canon EOS 600D (Remodeled)
Location: Tokai vil., Ibaraki pref.

Camera Settings: Recording format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(5184×3456)
Sensitivity...ISO1600



f=80mm telephoto lens (The crescent moon & comet PanSTARRS)

Date & Time: Mar 14 2013, 18:29 JST(+0900)
Composed 4 shots with 1/1.3 second exposed
Optical: AF zoom-Nikkor ED 80-200mmF2.8 (f=80mm, Aperture: F2.8)
Auto-guided with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Digital Camera: Nikon D700
Location: Tokai vil., Ibaraki pref.

Camera Settings: Recording Format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(4256×2832)
Device Size...FX format (36×24mm)
Sensitivity...ISO1600, White Balance...Daylight


Although clouds in lower west skies obscured the comet PanSTARRS in that day, I could take a clear structure of dust tail. The first and second images have been displayed by turning celestial north direction and the zenith upward, respectively. The dust tail of 20 arc minutes length has stretched in east direction with a structure of fan-shaped, and you can recognize that southern part of the tail looks distributed. I had an impression that the structure resembles that of the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997.
In that day, the crescent moon has been positioned about 14 degrees east of the comet. Actually they closed with about 4 degrees in elongation in previous day, I could not capture the rendez-vous due to clouds in lower skies.



2011L4 PanSTARRS on Mar 15, 2013
2011L4 PanSTARRS on Mar 11, 2013

Copyright(c) 2013 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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