The New Comet Ikeya-Murakami C/2010 V1

Photographer: John Chumack; John's web site
Summary Authosr: John Chumack, Stu Witmer

The photo above shows the new comet Ikeya-Murakami in full color. The 10 minute exposure was taken at 6:00 am Eastern Standard Time on November 9, 2010 with my home-made 16 inch 'scope and QHY8 CCD color camera. The Comet had just cleared the trees to the east of my observatory in Yellow Springs, Ohio The comet was easy to find since it was within one degree of Saturn, easily visible in my 4 inch 'scope. I estimated it at 8.5 magnitude. There was a very short time-frame to grab this shot as dawn was rising fast! But I did get very nice details…you'll note that it is sporting a little red tail, in addition to a great bow shock!