These guys were busy with the firewood while many others slept. It was 3am, and I walked into the observing camp and looked up (remember, I had the eyepatch on while I was near the fire to protect dark adaption). The sky had cleared up and there was not a single cloud.
Khalid sahab immediately slewed the 18" scope towards Comet Hartley 2, which was passing near the Double Cluster that night.
Photo courtesy of Michael Jäger of Stixendorf, Austria:
The comet is the green colored object. We could easily see the color with dark-adapted eyes.
Earlier in the night, we had seen Hartley with binoculars. This was my fifth comet.
Doug Zubenel took this picture on Oct. 16 from the Monument Rocks National Landmark in Kansas:
"To photograph the comet, I used a Canon Rebel XTi digital camera with an 85mm Nikkor lens," says Zubenel. "This picture is a single 2-minute exposure begun with the lens focused on the rocks, with a quick flash, then focus-shifted to infinity for the remainder of the time at ISO 800."
