Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) is a fairly dim comet (about magnitude 4 as of the date this image was taken) with a short tail. This image was taken with the comet low just above the treetops. The camera was piggybacked on my polar-aligned LX-200. Unfortunately, the polar alignment was very poor, hence the trailing of the stars and comet in this image.

There is a thin cloud to the upper left of the comet.

• Date: May 7, 2004
• Exposure: 2 minutes
• Lens: 200mm f/4 Olympus @ f/5.6
• Guiding: None
• Camera: Olympus OM-1 (piggybacked on polar-aligned 10" LX-200)
• Film: Kodak Supra 400 (not hypered)
• Scanned: Hewlett Packard S20
• Processing: Adjusted curves  in Adobe Photoshop 6.

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June 8, 2004 Transit of Venus