Discovered in 1994, Comet 144P/Kushida orbits the Sun every 7.6 years and is approaching its next perihelion on 26th January 2009 when it will be close to the Hyades in Taurus. This sequence, taken on 26th December 2008, shows the comet having just left Aries, moving into Taurus. Each frame is a 120s exposure, separated by 8 minutes.




144P/Kushida in Taurus. 10 120s exposures, 8 minutes separation
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Here is a short sequence showing 9 Metis nudging northwards across the southerly regions of Aries last night, the 17th December 2008. There are 3 frames in the sequence, 10 minutes apart, each frame comprising a 60 second exposure. The motion isn't spectacular - I worked out that its motion would be about 2' in 10 hours, so you may struggle to detect 4-5" of drift in the elapsed 20 minutes of this sequence.

9 Metis (the '9' denoting that Metis was the 9th asteroid discovered) is 366km along ...

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