Comet Machholz

These pictures were taken with a 90mm lens in January 2005. They show comet Machholz and the Perseus double star cluster. Clicking on the "alternate frames" button should switch between the two pictures.

There seem to be quite a few things moving apart from the comet. One of these is a hair on a negative, but I'm not sure about the rest. Satellites leave trails on photographs, not dots. The most likely candidates are asteroids, though I thought they were in the same orbital plane as the planets. Perseus is about 45° above the ecliptic. Another possibility is space junk, but it would have to be moving very slowly. Finally, it's possible that dust was present when the negatives were scanned at the lab.

If I'd taken three or more pictures, evenly spaced, it would help identify the moving objects.

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