Jim Scotti's Comet page
The following lists are in postscript format.
-
See
a summary of comet recoverers. (approx. 160KB postscript)
-
See
a summary of recent comets. The tables contained therein give the reference
(I.A.U. Circular number or MPEC) of the report of discovery, followed by
the comets designation(s), common name, and the recoverer if appropriate.
Updates ended in 2000.
(approx. 97KB postscript)
-
See
a summary of extreme observations of periodic comets. The tables contained
therein list extreme observations of all currently known periodic comets,
giving the circumstances of the first and last observations during each
apparition of each comet. (Long! - approx. 352KB, postscript)
P/2000 Y3
P/2000 Y3 (Scotti) This is the first discovery image of my very
first comet "Scotti" (all the other "discoveries" turned out to be of
known objects....).
Here is a 2nd image (note the shift against the crowded starfield).
Here is a 3rd image.
Comet Observations
Images with the Spacewatch telescope and CCD
As a team member with the Spacewatch
survey for Near Earth Asteroids (NEA's) and other populations of solar
system objects, I observe on Kitt
Peak in Arizona typically for 6 nights each lunation. I am able to
use some of my observing time to observe some of the many available comets
within the range of our 36 inch telescope and CCD camera. The following
images are just some of the comet images I've obtained or helped obtain
over the past 13 years
Photographic comet images
Comet Hyakutake over Mission San Xavier del Bac
This image was obtained as the moon set in the west on the night that comet
Hyakutake was closest to the north pole. The yellow cast on the usually
white Mission is due to local lighting.
Comet artwork
Sonoran Hyakutake
This painting was made more than a month before comet Hyakutake would have
reached the position on the sky depicted in this painting. I was a bit
optomistic about just how the comet was to appear as it set into the twilight
sky in the west behind Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson in Arizona.
Unfortunately, the comet was not quite this spectacular as it sort of "fizzled"
as it moved inside of Earth's orbit.
Beacons
This painting is of a bright comet in the twilight sky behind a lighthouse
on the ocean shore. In particular the lighthouse is the Heceta Head lighthouse
on the Oregon coast, USA.
For more paintings (including other comet artwork), visit my
(Mostly) Space
Art web page.
Some comet links:
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IAU/CBAT/MPC
Elements & Ephemerides of Observable Comets
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International Comet Quarterly
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ICQ: Recent
Comet Magnitudes
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Charles Morris' Comet Home Page at
JPL
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Carl Hergenrother's
CSS comet page
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Seiichi Yoshida's Information about Comets
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The Puckett Observatory
comet page
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Gary Kronk's Comets and Meteor Showers page
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Gary Kronk's Cometography webpage
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Comets and asteroids
- from "The Astronomer Online" (Nick James)
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Don Machholz' Comet Comments
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Herman Mikuz Comet Page
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BAA Comet section (Jon Shanklin)
Check back later as I expand the contents of this page.
The background image is comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 as it appeared
on 1993 March 30, a few days after discovery. This image was obtained
with the Spacewatch telescope and shows all the major structures that
were seen in this comet.
Last update: May 29, 2007
