Posts Made By: John Chumack

January 17, 2005 01:12 AM Forum: Comets

9P Tempel 1 photo & Nasa's Deep Impact Mission

Posted By John Chumack

Hi All,

As part of the Nasa's Deep Impact Mission,
I'm on their STSP or Small Telescope Science Program in collaboration with the University of Maryland & JPL, I will be providing them comet images along with astrometric/photometric data for monitoring 9P's coma & dust production.

We will be monitoring this comet right through scheduled impact on the 4th of July 2005.


Its currently about 17.8 magnitude, but will brighten to about 10.5 magnitude by next July, at which time the Deep Impact Probe will smack right into the comet, they expect a brightness increase of about 5 magnitudes, bringing the comet to about 5th magnitude in a matter of seconds to minutes.

for more details on Deep Imapct go to: http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/

My image of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 is below...............stay tuned!

Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC#838 Dayton Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

February 23, 2009 08:50 PM Forum: Digital SLR AstroPhotography

Comet Lulin 93 min. exp with Canon Rebel Xsi

Posted By John Chumack

Hi All,

Last Friday night 02-21-09 I went out to my observatories in Yellow Springs, Ohio, despite the cold temps.

I was able to capture this 93 minute exposure of Comet Lulin. By the way, the Comet is just barely visible to the naked eye from a suburban location.

The comet looks a lot better in Binoculars and the dust tail is visible. Easy in a 4" diameter telescope!
The comet is moving rapidly, so movement is easily detectable after only 1 minute.
I captured this shot with my 5" diameter reflector and Canon Rebel Xsi, ISO 400, for 93 minutes, 33 subs, 20 at 4 minutes, and 13 at 1 minute, to help prevent over exposure of the nucleus.

I tracked on Comet Lulin's Nucleus, to show the finer details in the dust tail(left) and Anti-Tail tail(right).

The Comet is Traveling from left to right(east to west) in this image.
On the 24th Feb. Comet Lulin will be very near the Planet Saturn(within 2 degrees) and Comet Lulin is passing the Earth at only 38 million miles, about the average distance to Mars.

The Comet is shedding it ice and producing literally an Olympic size swimming pool of water every 15 minutes, the Green color around the comet is CN2 Cyanogen, a Poisonous Gas.

Comet Lulin was discover back in 2007, by several Taiwanese and Chinese astronomers "Lulin Survey Team", but Comet Lulin is now just becoming bright enough to see naked eye.

Hopefully the weather clears soon so you all can enjoy this bright comet.

Currently Lulin is shining magnitude 5.5 and is currently(23rd of Feb) 1.5 degrees west of the star Sigma Leonis in the Constellation of Leo.


Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
www.mvas.org