Of all the objects visible in the night sky, it is the brightest comets that have most fascinated amateur astronomers and alarmed the human population. No other objects can stretch as far across the sky as the tail of a truly great comet, or be as easily visible as a zero-magnitude 'broom star.' In recent times amateur astronomers have made some surprising discoveries, including the comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake, while also playing a critical role in detecting the comets that hit Jupiter in 1994 and 2009. It was also an amateur astronomer that first spotted the dazzling October 2007 outburst of 17P/Holmes. Discovering a comet has always been the greatest prize for the amateur astronomer - the chance to truly "write your name across the sky." Remarkably, despite routine professional CCD surveys, many amateurs worldwide still discover comets in the 21st century. In Hunting and Imaging Comets Martin Mobberley, an active comet imager himself, explains how non-professionals have achieved such success. This book describes in precise detail how amateur astronomers can find comets and capture spectacular images of them using modern telescopes, CCDs, and digital SLRs. Mobberley also explains how computer software can be used to measure the positions and brightness magnitudes of comets to a professional standard and how to submit those scientific results to the astronomical community. If you want to search for new comets, or simply observe known ones, this is the book for you!

Autorentext
Martin Mobberley is a well-known amateur astronomer from Suffolk, England, who joined the British Astronomical Association in 1969, aged eleven, initially as a visual observer. Since the early 1980s he has been a regular photographer and imager of comets, planets, asteroids, variable stars, novae, and supernovae. He served as one of the youngest presidents of the British Astronomical Association, from 1997 to 1999, and in 2000 he was presented with the association's Walter Goodacre Award. In 1997 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named asteroid number 7239 as 'Mobberley' in recognition of Martin's contribution to amateur astronomy. Martin is the sole author of seven previous practical astronomy books published by Springer as well as three children's 'Space Exploration' books published by Top That Publishing. In addition he has authored hundreds of articles in the UK magazine Astronomy Now and numerous other astronomical publications, as well as appearing from time to time on Patrick Moore's long-running BBC TV program The Sky at Night.

Zusammenfassung
For many astronomers, the holy grail of observation is to discover a comet, not least because comets always bear the name of their discoverer! Hunting and Imaging Comets was written for comet hunters and digital imagers who want to discover, rediscover, monitor, and make pictures of comets using astronomical CCD cameras and DSLRs. The old days of the purely visual comet hunter are pretty much over, but this is not to say that amateurs have lost interest in finding comets. The books also covers the discovery of comet fragments in the SOHO image data, CCD monitoring of older comets prone to violent outbursts, the imaging of new NEOs (Near Earth Objects) that have quite often been revealed as comets - not asteroids - by amateur astronomers, and the finding of recent comets impacting Jupiter.

Inhalt
Preface.- Acknowledgments.- Comets, Their Orbits, and Where They Hide!.- Great Comet Discoveries Throughout History.- Professional 21st Century Comet Hunters.- Amateur 21st Century Comet Hunters.- Finding the Next Hale-Bopp with Your Gear.- Comets That Have Been Missed by the Pros.- Recovering Returning Periodic Comets.- Discovering Comets Using SOHO.- Following the NEOS that Might Become Comets.- Monitoring Outbursting Comets.- Comet Imaging Techniques.- Lenses, Telescopes, Astrographs, and Mountings.- Imaging Comets Remotely and via the Internet.- Comet Photometry.- A Few of the World's Keenest Comet Imagers.- Comet Resources.- Index.