Comet 103P-Hartley2 taken between 10:26pm and 12:56am, Oct 12-13 2010 MST (UT-7).

The change in brightness halfway through the sequence is due to an inadvertent reduction in exposure time, from 60s to 40s - don't ask :O) Field of view is 26.4 arc-minutes.

36 frames with 3 minute intervals taken with the SBIG ST-8300M (monochrome) CCD camera at -0C. Baader 2" UV/IR filter. Telescope configuration: Celestron 9.25 inch EdgeHD (2350mm, f/10) and no focal reducer, binned 2x2 yielding an image scale of 0.95 arc-seconds/pixel. Mount: Losmandy G11 w/Gemini. Focused using a Bahtinov focus mask and the new Feathertouch focuser. Calibration, alignment, stacking and DDP in ImagesPlus 3.82b. Post processing: curves in Nebulosity2. Guiding with a Lodestar autoguider connected to a Stellarvue 50mm finderscope and a Celestron 2x Barlow and PHD autoguiding software.

See the video here http://www.youtube.com/wjshaheen#p/u/0/AL0CS3kY-I4

20101012_Comet-103P-Hartley2_CombExcAvg.jpg