The first sketch of Comet Petriew!  This was sketched by Richard Huziak the night of the discovery.  His years of experience really showed since he made it look so easy to do this sketch.  Copyright Richard Huziak.  

The first image of Comet Petriew taken by Alan Hale (co-discoverer of comet Hale-Bopp).  This is an astrometric image (short exposure) to find the exact location of the comet in the sky taken from Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA.  Alan used an 8 inch telescope on August 19th, 2001 to confirm the comet.  Copyright Alan Hale. 

An image taken by another Canadian comet discoverer, Dave Balam.  The image was taken with the 1.82 m (72 inch)  Plaskett Telescope, National Research Council of Canada in Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA.  The image is a 400-sec (stacked) image obtained on September 7th, 2001.  Movement rate = 176"/hr at position angle = 111 degrees.  Copyright National Research Council of Canada.

This image was taken three days after the discovery using a 12 inch telescope.  The black on white picture makes it easier to see the tail.  Copyright Giovanni Sostero.

This image shows the comet moving amongst the stars.  It was 12 minute between exposures.  Image was taken with a 24 inch telescope.  Copyright G. V. Schiaparelli. 

One of my favorite images of Comet Petriew.  The image was taken by Jack Newton of British Columbia using his Meade 16" LX-200 and a Finger Lakes Dream Machine CCD camera.  Exposure times were one minute in each of LRGB.  The image was taken five days after discovery.  Copyright Jack Newton.

Dave Kriege and I unloading my new 20" Obsession from his Ford Explorer in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.

Dave and I posing for a picture.  My daughter, Emily, was only 4 months old.

All the pieces (minus the mirror).  There's no problem fitting this into the back of the van.

Assembling the telescope for the first time in the backyard. 

After 3 months of waiting, a box arrived at the door.  Emily was the first to check it out.

Installing the mirror into the mirror box.  I'm glad I won't have to take this out again!

This image was taken a couple of days after I discovered the comet.  Emily was only 8 months old at that time.

After a frosty, cold night of observing.

The best!

The first thing I did after the Star Party was check my email.  A couple of people knew about the comet confirmation before I did.  The Internet is an amazing communication tool.  My eyes were pretty red from lack of sleep that weekend!

The first day back, I set up the telescope for a photo shoot for the local newspaper.  The next day, my picture was on the front page!

A self portrait of me and the telescope.  The shirt was from the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party where I discovered the comet.

On Tuesday, the media flood began.  Here I'm setting up my telescope in the park for the CBC National News crew.

Getting wired up for the interview.

Camera angles are very important in a visual world.

I was interviewed for both the English and French CBC National News. 

We had a good chat after the interview was over.

Meanwhile, another TV station was waiting to do an interview. 

This is an interview for the CTV News.  Notice the observatory on the roof of the Saskatchewan Science Centre.  That's where our club's web telescope is.

Later that evening, I set up my telescope again for an interview with Global TV. 

I was starting to get better at the questions by this point.

Everyone is amazed when they see the beauty and size of this telescope. 

The next night after finding the comet, I told the the attendees of the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party about the potential comet discovery.  All indications at this point, was that the comet was new but it needed to be confirmed first.  Copyright Alan Dyer.

This is the first group of people that knew about the comet discovery.  If you were at the SSSP 2001, do you recognize anyone?  Copyright Alan Dyer.  

I had lots of requests for interviews and a requests for presentations.  Since it's tough to get away from work, I didn't give that many presentations right away.

I headed home to the farm early one weekend so I could give a presentation to the Radisson and Langham schools.  The kids really enjoyed it! 

I was also asked to give a presentation to a group of confirmation students at Luther College in Regina.

It was incredibly cold this day (-38 with the windchill) but the hoarfrost was amazing glistening in the sun! 

I've always enjoyed sunrise and sunset pictures.  This was the view of the front door-step of my house one evening. 

A purple petunia in our backyard.

A group of tiger lilies in my backyard sun tanning.

I was playing with the camera on Canada Day and caught a few fireworks shots. 

A beautiful fireworks explosion.  Because digital cameras are generally slow to focus and shoot, I was guessing and  pushing the shutter button before the explosion and hoping for the best.

A thunderstorm that moved across the prairies.  Lots of thunder and lightning from this one! 

A beautiful sunrise at my parent's farm. 

Saskatchewan is truly the Land of Living Skies!  Beautiful sunsets and lots of aurora. 

A sunrise looking out my backyard gate. 

There were some cool clouds in the sky on Christmas Day. 

A colorful sunrise on the way to work one morning. 

Another colorful array of morning clouds! 

The sun peeking over the horizon as seen from my work's office tower. 

I love those thick hoarfrost days with the bright blue sky.

A winter wonderland down our street. 

We usually have one day a winter with incredible hoarfrost! 

I captured this jet flying through the hoarfrost trees.  One of my favorite pictures!