[BAA Comets] 96P Macholtz

[Nick James]

I got a better view of Machholz tonight using an SXV-H9 on the back of a 
Megrez 72. It was still a battle between twilight and rooftops with the 
added worry of cloud slowly approaching from the west but at least I now 
have detected the tail.

http://www.nickdjames.com/Media/albums/Astronomy/Comets/96p_20120726_ndj.jpg

This is a 43x30s stack. The altitude of the comet ranged from 9.5 - 6.1 
deg during this set and flat fielding and sky background subtraction was 
quite a challenge.

Hopefully, comet 2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) will be a lot brighter than this 
with a decent tail when it is at a similar altitude at evening nautical 
twilight next March.

Thanks to Denis for flagging up this comet as a possible target. Before 
his challenge I had thought that it was just too low in a bright sky.

Nick.