I had never imaged a comet before. Last evening I imaged my first, comet Garradd. The fainter ones are a bit difficult to find since they move daily. I did not realize how many comets have been identified this year...Lulin, Elenin, and Garradd. An earlier comet, Elenin, to attract buzz spurred questions about whether it would collide with the earth. Nasa has clarified in a statement that the fading comet Elenin, expected to come closest to earth on October 16, 2011, will not collide with Earth. As typical with most comets, Elenin will also not come closer to earth than 22 million miles.
“Comet Elenin will not encounter any dark bodies that could perturb its orbit, nor will it influence us in any way here on Earth," said Don Yeomans, a scientist at NASA.
“It will be headed back out again, and we will not see or hear from Elenin for thousands of years,” he added.
I had to do some research to find out where to look for the newest comet Garradd. My best guess was that it would be in the constellation Vulpecula near an obscure globular cluster of stars, NGC 6802. You can see the cluster in the bottom right. I took a minute exposure and saw that it was indeed in the same FOV as the cluster. So, stacking ten one minute exposures, here's the result after some manipulation in Photoshop:
Click on for a larger view.
