Comet Linear (C/1998 M5)
Image from 8" f/8 Newtonian @ prime focus,
using a Cookbook 245 CCD camera
March 15, 1999 08:22 to 12:56 UT


This image is a composit of 123 exposures
Each exposure is 45sec taken at an interval of 135 secs.
These images were made with the telescope tracking turned off,
thus recording the apparent motion of the comet in the sky.

The strange "V" path was the result of the near north polar pass of the comet.
The angular motion of the comet matched the angular motion of the earth's rotation.
This caused the comet to appear to stop dead still for nearly two hours.

The celestial North Pole is at the left just below the bottom of the frame.

This event was predicted by Roger W. Sinnott and described by him in the April 1999 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine, page 111.
Syuichi Nakano, (Minor Planet Circular 32866), calculated the comet's orbital parameters which allowed Mr. Sinnott to predict this very unusual event.

Click here to see a movie of this event
(file is 790K)
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Link to Elgin Observatory, CCD Image Index