[AZ-Observing] Comet Bradfield's 12-Degree Tail (With Pictures)

Several of us were up this morning looking at the two comets from a site a
few miles from Arizona City.  I was most interested in seeing the anti-tail
of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR).  But Comet C/2004 F4 (Bradfield) stole the show.

In attendance were Joe Goss, Randy Peterson, Martin Bonadio, Jennifer
Keller, and Joe Bergeron.  Their scopes: new C14, 10" LX-200, 16"
Newtonian, 10" Newtonian, and 92mm A-P Stowaway refractor.  I brought my
70mm Pronto refractor.

First, Comet LINEAR.  I had my best view through Martin's 16".  It showed a
diffuse tail about one degree in length.  I think I saw the angled
anti-tail by knowing where to look, but it was extremely faint through all
that horizon crud.

Comet Bradfield was a magnificent site through the Pronto.  With a 27mm
Panoptic eyepiece, I get 18x and 4 degrees.  The tail extended well out of
that field of view.  I panned another field, and it filled that one, too.
It seemed to go on further, but claiming a tail over 8 degrees long seemed
a bit much.

I brought the Digital Rebel, and used 50mm and 20mm lenses.  I set the ISO
to 400 or 800, and typically exposed for 20 seconds.  Focusing the 50mm is
not as trivial as I would like, so those shots suffered, which is a shame.
The 20mm did well.  Five images, rushed to press, are posted here:

http://www.pbase.com/image/28269060

Now that I know what I did wrong with these photographs, I will deprive
myself of more sleep tomorrow, and do it again.

Tom 

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