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Comet
Hyakutake C/1996 B2


Object : Comet, Hykutake C/1996 B2
Coordinates/Direction : -
Object size : -
Object magnitude : -
More to know :

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Comet Hyakutake

NASA:
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ comet/ hyakutake/

You can read more about the comet on Seiichi Yoshida's homepage:
http://www.aerith.net/ comet/ catalog/ 1996B2/ 1996B2.html

Comet's light curve:

Comet Hyakutake C/1996 B2, light curve 1996 Credit: software 'Comet for Windows' from Seiichi Yoshida

The magnitude of the comet around the days I photographed it.


Hyakutake C/1996 B2 on CCD camera 1996
Date : 1996-03-24
Time (UT) : 20:09 to 20:47
Mount : Special built from left over parts at Stockholm University
Lens/telescope : Nikon 50mm f/1.4 (f/2.0)
Field (FOV) : 12x12 degree, before cropping
Filter : none
Camera : Spectra Source Instruments HPC-1, mono chrome CCD 1024x1024.
Exp. time : 4x20 seconds
Image process tool : Matlab, Corel Draw. All image processing done by my own developed Matlab routines.
Processing : align, resize, level, cal dark and gamma image processing
Site : Sweden, Stockholm, Saltsjöbaden Observatory. Bortle 6
https://sv.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Saltsjöbadens observatorium
Comment : Comet discovered 1996-01-30 by Yuji Hyakutake, sorry to read that he had passed away: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/.

Hyakutakes closest approach to Earth at march 25, distance 0.1 AU.
AU, Astronomical Unit, 1 AU are the distance between the Earth and the Sun, about 150 million kilometers.
0.1 AU is about 400 times moon distance.

Hyakutake C/1996 B2 color on tripple CCD filter 1996

Date : 1996-03-24
Time (UT) : 23:00
Lens/telescope : Nikon 50mm f/1.4 (f/2.0)
Field (FOV) : 12x12 degree, before cropping
Exp. time : red 1x60s, green 1x60s, blue 1x60s.
Image process tool : Meade, Corel Draw.
Processing : An early processed image with a not so advanced program, oversaturated core. I had to do something about it, I spent 2 years to develop my own image processing tool in Matlab to do this. Even if it today sound that it was small size images with 1024x1024 pixels it give the computer nuts to do it.
Comment : The bright star just to the left and bottom is Polaris.

The comet is big with its tail, moon has a diameter of 0.5 degree this image is about 12 degree wide!

Hyakutake C/1996 B2 color on tripple CCD filter 1996
Date : 1996-03-24
Time (UT) : 22:00 to 22:15
Lens/telescope : Nikon 50mm f/1.4 (f/2.0)
Field (FOV) : 12x12 degree, before cropping
Filter : Red=25, Green=58 and Blue=47B filter
Camera : Spectra Source Instruments HPC-1, mono chrome CCD 1024x1024.
Exp. time : red 3x20s, green 3x20s, blue 3x20s.
Image process tool : Matlab, Corel Draw. All image processing done by my own developed Matlab routines
Processing : align, resize, level, cal dark and gamma image processing
Comment : Now I had bought a set of red, green and blue filter, because I wanted to take color images.

Fast moving, between each color filter change it has moved relative background stars. From this night it had been reported that the tail had reached 35 degrees length. That's about three times more compare to what you can see in this photo.

Hyakutake C/1996 B2 color on tripple CCD filter 1996
Date : 1996-03-26
Time (UT) : 20:25 to 20:36
Lens/telescope : Nikon 50mm f/1.4 (f/2.0)
Field (FOV) : 12x12 degree, before cropping
Exp. time : red 1x20s, green 1x20s, blue 1x20s
Image color calibrated with G2-stars as references (our sun is a G2-star)
Comment : Three days later, the comet brightness peaked a couple of days earlier at magnitude -1, that is very bright to be a comet.

Hyakutake C/1996 B2 mono chrome on CCD 1996
Date : 1996-04-08
Time (UT) : 19:20
Lens/telescope : Nikon 50mm f/1.4 (f/2.0)
Field (FOV) : 12x12 degree, before cropping
Filter : none
Exp. time : 60 seconds
Comment : The last of my images of Hyakutake, now it's fading away, compare the size with the images two weeks earlier. The orbital period is 70000 years.

An early student project at Stockholm University.
Animation :
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