Image of the Month - December 2004

Christmas Comet

The Star of Bethlehem probably was not a comet: The medieval Italian artist Giotto di Bondone was apparently the first painter to depict a comet in his painting The Christmas Story, after he observed Halley's comet in 1301. When that comet returned in 1986, a European space probe named in honor of Giotto painted a somewhat different, closeup image of the comet. This year, however, a real comet will grace the skies during the christmas season. Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) was discovered by Don Machholz on August 27, 2004 - it was his tenth discovery, and the first in 10 years, after sweeping the sky for 1,457 with no luck. The comet will be a fine sight during the next few weeks.

Credit & Copyright: Ramón Naves Nogues, Observatorio Montcabrer, Spain

Ramón Naves Nogues took this composite image on 2004 November 17, when the total brightness of the comet was just around 11^mag. Nevertheless, comet Machholz displays two nice tails: a broad, somewhat curved dust tail towards the west (right), and a slim, straight gas tail in the anti-solar direction towards the north (up). The image shown here is a composite of three images, taken with a SBIG ST-9 CCD camera on the 0.3m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope of the Observatorio Montcabrer near Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain. The total exposure time is 25 minutes. Click on the image above to see a full resolution view (100kB).

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