Comets and Minor Planets

Comet C/2023 A3 S ATLAS

Comet c/2020 F3 NEOWISE on 2020-07-13

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on February 11, 2015 UT

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on January 22, 2015 UT

Only one standout filament in wavy ion tail.

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on January 20, 2015 UT

Many filaments recorded in Ion tail with one disconnected.

Comet LoveJoy Jan 17, 2015

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) on October 27, 2013

Almarkim was one of the names that I submitted for 5 asteroids to the Minor Planet Center of the IAU that was approved and assigned to asteroid 13446 in their database in July 2011. Al was one of the actors on the 1950 TV show "Tom Corbett Space Cadet" that I watched when I was a young child.

Asteroid Frankiethomas in Perseus on Oct 28, 2013 at magnitude 18.3 courtesy Catalina Sky Survey

Comet Panstarrs on March 18th, 2013

A very dusty comet with no sign of a gas tail. Taken from the North parking lot at Chesterfield Mall.

Comet Panstarrs on March 13th, 2013

Note fan-shaped dust tail with no sign of gas tail. Estimated tail length < 1 degree.

Comet Panstarrs and 1-day-old Moon on March 12th, 2013

Imaged with Canon 20d with 170mm lenses at f/3.5 ISO 800 on fixed tripod. Twenty three 1-sec frames combined with Images Plus 2.8. Very transparent skies. Check out the Moon illuminated by Earthshine. The location is the North parking lot at Chesterfield Mall. It has a nearly un-obstructive horizon.

Comet C/2009-P1(Garradd) on Oct. 24, 2011UT at Broemmelsiek Park

I had lots of help with this!! After I spent an hour unsuccessfully searching for Garradd with a 25mm eyepiece in Sky-90, Andy Fischer searched for about 5 minutes and found it! I locked the RA and Dec shafts, removed ep holder and mounted the Canon 20db. I then racked the camera in a bit and took a focus frame. Oh my, it was focused perfectly!! I told Andy that God must have focused it because I was worn out and needed help before the comet got too low in the West. Jim Melka

Comet C/2009-P1(Garradd) on Oct. 16, 2011UT

Altitude is about 30 degrees. Image stacked on comet's head causing trailed stars.

Asteroid Janmerlin 46-minute exposure in Aquarius.

Janmerlin was one of the names that I submitted for 5 asteroids to the Minor Planet Center of the IAU that was approved and assigned to asteroid 13441 in their database in July 2011. Jan was one of the actors on the 1950 TV show "Tom Corbett Space Cadet" that I watched when I was a young child. This image was taken Oct 4th, 2011 about one month past the coinciding opposition and perihelion. At opposition Janmerlin shined at magnitude 14.5 but had already faded to 15.2. Actually, this is very bright for a typical asteroid in the asteroid belt.

Asteroid Jamesmelka on June 15, 2013 at magnitude 16.05 courtesy of Rik Hill, Catalina Sky Survey, Lunar & Planetary Lab, Univ. of AZ.

Comet Garradd

First Image of a comet with NGT-18 on August 20, 2011.

October 8th, 2010

Comet Hartley 2 and the Double Cluster in Perseus

March 3rd, 2009 Comet Lulin Magnified

Comet Lulin's green coma & red dust tail & bright nucleus - from Chesterfield, MO by Jim Melka. At a distance of 0.5AU to Earth, the diameter of false nucleus is 4625 miles and coma is 154k miles across. 30cm Newtonian at parcorr focus f/4.2 & Canon 20d(Baader IR) ISO 800 on custom GEM mount 120 30-sec RAW frms began at 03:30 UT on Mar. 03, 2009, processed with Images Plus 2.80

February 23, 2009

Comet Lulin Shows its colors

Comet Lulin est. magnitude 4.0 - 4.5, Reddish dust tail 0.7° - Feb. 23, 2009 from Chesterfield, MO Takahashi Sky 90 at f/4.5 & Canon 20d(Baader IR) ISO 400 on 1950 GEM mount by Jim Melka. 80 30-sec RAW frms begin at 08:28 UT translated &combined - Images Plus 2.80

February 23, 2009

Comet Lulin Wide field of View

Comet Lulin est. magnitude 4.0 – 4.5, Dust tail 0.7° - Feb. 23, 2009 from Chesterfield, MO by Jim Melka. Canon 20d(Baader IR) ISO 400 & 85mm f/1.8Canon lens & 2X Tamron teleconverter on EQ1 mount 120 30-sec RAW frms begin at 05:34 UT translated &combined - Images Plus 2.80

Comet Tuttle on Jan 3, 2008 with 12-inch Newt thru clouds with ~ 10 minute-of-arc tail

Comet Holmes on Dec. 24, 2007 from Chesterfield, MO

The FOV is 8 X 5.5 degrees. I am very happy with the flat field using a Canon 20d body with Tamron 2X teleconverter and an 85mm f/1.8 lens. 90 45sec frames sigma combined with Images Plus 2.8. This time I locked the dec axis so I only needed to do an automatic translation alignment with IP. However, the deviation radius of the frames maxed out at 100.4 pixels!! I duct taped an 8x monocular to the mount to be a polar scope. It may need some adjusting. But I think I’m getting my money’s worth out of IP. Good seeing, Jim Melka

Used Images Plus 2.80 to find best focus. Then used the Canon timer-counter-controller device to sequentially record ninety 45-sec frames with the Canon 20d set at ISO 800 with 85mm f/1.8lens coupled to Tamron 2X teleconverter resulting in an f/3.2 system. Field of view is 8 X 5.5 degrees. Mirfak is the bright mag. 1.78 star near the bottom right corner and 4th mag. Iota Persei is left of comet. Used IP 2.80 to register 88 usable frames by translation and rotation - I forgot to tighten the declination axis on the tracking Orion EQ1 GEM. Used GradXterminator S/W to remove amplifier noise on the right edge of the combined frame. Best regards, Jim Melka

Image of Comet Holmes on Nov 28, 2007 with 12-inch Newtonian

Imaging comet Holmes with 12-inch Newt started on Nov 28, 2007 at 12:43am and ended at 01:13am CST. Sixty 30-sec RAW frames recorded at ISO 800 with 20d camera body at paracorr focus. Focussing and post processing with Images Plus 2.80. Also used GradXterminator and Neat image enhancement programs. Of note is the green tint of the comet’s coma and the FOV is 1 x 2/3 degrees. Clear skies. Jim Melka

Comet Holmes on Nov. 29, 2007 from Chesterfield, MO

Comet Holmes on Nov. 20, 2007 - The Transparent Comet

The field of view is estimated to be 0.75 by 0.50 degrees. The axis of the comet is pointed away from Earth and can be seen as a light shaft starting at the false nucleus lower left center and extending to the one-o’clock position. Magnitude 1.8 Mirfak is the bright star lower right. Sixty 30-sec frames were taken using a Canon 20d with a 50mm lens mounted afocally on 12" Newt. A 52mm 50-degree Antares erfle eyepiece was put in the paracorr lens mount. Calibrated frames with dark frame and flat frame using Images Plus 2.80. Used IP to measure and obtain the best focus and used digital development on the digitally combined Image frame. The frames were recorded with the Canon counter, timer, controller. Good seeing. Jim Melka

Image of Comet Holmes on October 27, 2007

Image was captured with a Canon 20d DSLR on a clock-driven EQ1 Orion equatorial mount from Chesterfield, MO. Sky transparency rated 5 of 6. Altitude of the comet in Perseus about 35 degrees. Forty 30sec frames obtained at f/5.6 at a speed of 400 were combined with Images Plus 2.80 to produce a 20-minute exposure. Note the distinct green color of the outer coma of the comet that has been typical of recent comets. Good seeing. Jim Melka

January 20, 2007

Two Images of Comet McNaught

November 10, 2006

Two Images of Comet Swan

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