Comet Bradfield (C/2004 F4)

Comet Bradfield C/2004 F4, 2004/4/27 9:00UT

2004/4/27 4:53 -- 5:06 EDT. This comet was worth getting up at 3am, driving an hour one way to the Wagman observatory! It rained a few hours ago, haze and light pollution was serious. I found the comet with 7x50 binoculars after a while, but the tail was nowhere as long as in the photo. I started photo the comet with a homemade barn door tracker -- it was the first time I use the tracker after it's constructed. Turning a 'tracking wheel' every 10 seconds, I took five one-minute exposures with a Nikon coolpix 995 digital camera (widest zoom, ISO 400 to 800, noise reduction on, white balance sunny). Later I stacked them together to create the photo above. Notice M31 is visible at the upper left corner. From Wagman observatory, Pittsburgh.

Comet Bradfield C/2004 F4, 2004/4/27 9:15UT

A stack of two 1-minute exposures. ISO 400. F2.6, f8.2mm.