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A Christmas Comet!


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The evening of December 16, the clouds parted after dominating the sky all day and allowed me to get a few shots of the fabled Christmas Comet Wirtanen 46P at its brightest! It was favorably placed just below the Pleiades as it rose in the East at magnitude Mag 4, not quite visible to the naked eye from my Bortle 6 sky, but readily visible through binoculars and the telescope. Surprisingly, visually, it appeared brighter the night before, but then the first quarter moon was much farther west and less intrusive. Here is the best of a series of quick and dirty one-off 30 second subs at f/10, ISO 800, and a cropped image:

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1293272028_ASTRONOMY-COMETWIRTANEN12-16-18CROP.thumb.jpg.aa84e2af204e5a177a1cdb32dee5f4a1.jpg

Name: Comet Wirtanen/46P

Discovered by Carl A. Wirtanen on January 17, 1948 at Lick Observatory

Orbital period: 5.4 yrs.

Radius: @603 m (1980 ft.)

Perihelion date: 12/12/18

Perigee: 12/16/18

Distance at perigee: @11 million km (7 million miles)

Velocity at perigee: 6 miles/sec

Magnitude at perigee: @ magnitude 4

 

Cheers,

Reggie :) 

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Nice one. I'm hoping to get out (briefly) tonight to see/poss image a shot IF the weather plays ball!. Its been horrid weather over the weekend down here. Sunday morning was good, but the sun was up but the sun was up by then.

Nice images.. Rob

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49 minutes ago, Rob said:

Nice one. I'm hoping to get out (briefly) tonight to see/poss image a shot IF the weather plays ball!. Its been horrid weather over the weekend down here. Sunday morning was good, but the sun was up but the sun was up by then.

Nice images.. Rob

Thanks, Rob. I had been hearing about Wirtanen sightings for weeks and only over the past few nights have I been able to see it at all in my Bottle 6 sky. It's supposed to hold its magnitude 4 brightness for a few more days as it skirts northwards past the Pleiades. I hope you get to see it while it's still reasonably bright.

Regards,

Reggie

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6 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Nice captures!

Thanks, Michael! Hope you're feeling better, mate. I loved your animation of the comet. I noticed its motion as I looked through my sequence of subs. It's really on the move at 6 miles per second!

Take care, my friend,

Reggie :)

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