Comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR)

After a nice northern hemisphere visibility in the fall of 2001 (which I missed due to a busy work schedule), the comet moved south and faded from view in mid-December. Unexpectedly, it experienced an outbust on January 27, 2002. In February, I had a chance to photograph this comet during a trip to South Africa and Namibia.

Apart from the forked dust dail, the image also shows a very faint ion tail, which is better displayed in this histogram-equalized image.



Instrument Vixen R200SS 8" f/4 Newtonian with coma corrector
Mount Vixen Super Polaris DX
Guiding ST-4 autoguider
Film Kodak PJ400, hypered
Date 10 Feb. 2002, 02:34 - 02:49 UTC
Site Cederberg Observatory, Western Cape Province, South Africa
Image # 2002-01/17


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