1999S4 LINEAR on July 22, 2000


Date & Time: Jul 22 2000, 20:49 & 21:02 JST(+0900), 10 & 20min. exposed each
Composed 2 images
Optical: TAKAHASHI 16cm(6.3") epsilon (f=530mm, F3.3)
Guided on comet's nuclei with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Camera: VIXEN VX-1
Film: Ektachrome E200 (+1EV pushed)
Location: Minamimaki vil., Nagano pref.


A shot of comet LINEAR positioned around the closest point to the Earth. The comet had a brightness of about 6th magnitude and was lying with tail stretched about 30 arc minutes just south of the Big Dipper in northwest evening sky. Though it was hazy so rather indistinct, the comet has two dimmed tails with dust and ion.
A piece of news has been reported that the nuclei of comet LINEAR exploded and collapsed perfectly a couple of days later I captured this image. And I couldn't capture the comet after the burst occurred because of bad weather. This image became a "Last shot" of comet LINEAR for me.


2001A2 LINEAR on Jul 1, 2001
1999S4 LINEAR on Jul 16, 2000

Copyright(c) 2000 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
To top page To Comets&Meteors index