COMET MACHHOLZ C/2004 Q2
					Return To Menu
		Common Name: Comet Machholz Other Names: Comet C/2004 Q2 RA: Not recorded at time of photo Dec Not recorded at time of photo Constellation: Taurus (Time of photograph) Distance: 52 million km (time of photograph) Magnitude: 5 (time of photograph) Telescope: Meade LX200GPS 14" Camera: Canon 300D Filters: nil Exposure: 0.5 minutes Date: January 2005 Where: Tenby Observatory, Coonabarabran Lat: 31 16 35.05 S, Long 149 11 33.99 E, Elevation 547metres Notes: Comet Machholz was discovered by Don Machholz in August 2004 At the time the photo was taken, the coma of the comet was around 450 000 km wide. The comets nucleus is thought to be a couple of Kms in diameter. The comet is green in colour which is caused by cyanogen (CN) and C2 fluorescing from the sunlight. Though not seen here, there are 2 tails, an ion tail and a dust tail. The ion tail is in the direction of the solar wind and the dust tail is in the opposite direction of the comets motion. When sunlight hits the nucleus, fragile ices vaporize, spewing jets of the dust and gas into space. These jets feed the coma and provide raw material for the tails. The orbit of the comet was estimated to have a period of 120 000 years. Its closest approach to the sun was 1.2 astronomical units.