Imaging studies of comets

Abstract

Schmidt camera plates of comet Bradfield were secured on several nights in October 1987. The images of October 20 show the development of a huge bend in the plasma tail travelling several hundred kilometers per second down the tail; the likely solar-wind origin of this event is being explored. A charged coupled device (CCD) detector has been obtained. Calibration of the CCD is still underway, but high-quality, filtered cometary images shoud be possible in the near future.