Comet Enthusiast

Comet Hartley 2. Credit: Hens Zimmerman

This is a photo of Comet Hartley 2 taken by Hens Zimmerman of the Netherlands prior to its close approach to Earth on October 9, 2010. Comet Hartley 2 is a small periodic comet with an orbital period of 6.46 years.

Here are some notes from Hens about the image:

“I used precise goto on my Celestron NexStar 5SE. I first found its exact coordinates using Voyager, my favorite OSX planetarium by Carinasoft.

“…My NexStar was of course already linked to GPS satellites and auto two star aligned to Polaris and Albireo. The NexStar computer suggested Mirfak (? Persei), which I centered in the eyepiece. It then instantly slewed to Hartley 2 which was dead center in the eyepiece.”

You may visit Hens’ blog for more astrophotos.

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Astrophotos