Comet 12P/PONS-BROOKS

[andrew63]

Comet 12P might be a good comet to see at closest approach in April next year. It's also visible during the total eclipse, so will hopefully generate some excitement. This article gives some detail and shows some wonderful sketches at its last approach in 1954 by the great observer George Alcock.

https://www.rocketstem.org/2020/04/04/ice-and-stone-comet-of-week-15/

[Xsubmariner]

Enjoyed reading the article, thanks for posting. 

[johnturley]

Will look out for it when we see the total eclipse from Mexico next April, although I gather that its only likely to be a binocular object.

John 

[andrew63]

Hope you have a great time John.

[harrym]

Big outburst from mag ~16.5 to 11.5 reported a few days ago. Comet is in Draco, well-placed for observation if the sky ever clears up.

https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/topic/12p_pons_brooks_in_outburst/100266541

[mcrowle]

I located and captured 12P Pons-Brook last night, my 112th comet .

It was quite easy to see in the 12" Newtonian, though its high elevation in Draco made it difficult to navigate to. It appeared round and quite condensed, whereas to the camera it looks like the Millennium Falcon .

The following image is from 9 x 4-minute exposures, stacked on the comet and cropped quite considerably.

Regards, and clear skies, Mike.

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by mcrowle
Replaced image with a 3 x 2 format crop

[dd999]

Any updates on this comet from anyone? - I know clouds haven't been very favourable in the UK over the past couple of weeks anywhere

[MalcolmP]

20 hours ago, dd999 said:

Any updates on this comet from anyone? - I know clouds haven't been very favourable in the UK over the past couple of weeks anywhere

Dreadful weather in England ! I was so out of practice last night (midnight 6-7 Aug) that all I could manage was 50 subs of 5sec using a 50mm f1.8 vintage lens.  50bias, no darks or flats.

And no comet ! [EDIT > XXNot above magnitude about 13 as far as I can see anyhows   .  Looks like its outburst has faded.XX <bad ! see later post ]

I had intended to go on to a 135mm for a lot more detailed subs once I had found where I was pointing at, but a combination of stupidity and lack of practice meant that I lost it behind some trees.

The full frame, yellow line  marks the spot (pixel crop and vigorous curves below ) 

 

 Comet should be just below B

Magnitudes from Stellarium : 

1= 11.1
2= 10.8
3= 12.1
(A & B were used to identify with VanB to make sure I had entered the comet correctly i Stellarium ! )

 

 

From http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/12 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by MalcolmP

[melsmore]

The magnitude seems to vary rapidly. Following from COBS database

 

 

[MalcolmP]

2 hours ago, melsmore said:

The magnitude seems to vary rapidly. Following from COBS database

Thanks for the link, very interesting
and I think I have made a bad assumption about its size/mag !
I was expecting it to be about the size of my star blobs and thus comparable in magnitude estimates, but COBS obs are reporting 2' to 3' coma dia. !!
Stars B and 1 are about 1' apart so such a diffuse comet spread over 3 times  that many pixels would be unseen, even for a mag of 11, in my humble camera I think ?
 

[melsmore]

Certainly no one else on COBS has used anything smaller than a 4" scope on it....

[Wyvern]

For what it's worth, here's my image of Pons-Brooks from a night or two ago.

Single image, sorry about slight trailing!

Les

[MalcolmP]

On 10/08/2023 at 20:47, Wyvern said:

 my image of Pons-Brooks from a night or two ago.

Hi Les, great comet image, thanks for showing,,  but , ummm,,
I think you have found C/2023 E1 (Atlas) not far away from 12P !
(unless I have done something really weird in stellerium for the night of 8-9 Aug)
I have made a gif/blink (but had to re-do your image as an indexed colour for a gif)
If it uploads ok it will also show two ref stars alongside, for confirm
1=HIP 105559
2=HIP 105795

Edited August 11, 2023 by MalcolmP

[Wyvern]

Opps!!!

Well spotted MalcolmP.

Imaged Pons-Brooks first and went back into the house to make a brew. On returning to the obsy, the next image I took was C/2023 E1 Atlas, but I somehow managed to write the order of imaging down in my notebook incorrectly!! It was just coffee I drank, honestly.

To all those who rushed out thinking Pons-Brooks had suddenly brightened...... sorry 🔧

Below IS my image of Pons-Brooks from the 8th Aug.

Yours...highly embarrassed 

Les.

[andrew63]

Comet 12P is in outburst again !

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/comet-12p-pons-brooks-flares-again/

[johnturley]

If it ends up brighter than predicted at perihelion, it might be visible during the total eclipse of the sun on April 8 next year (which we are viewing from Mexico with Astro Trails). At the predicted 4.5 magnitude, it would be too faint to be seen with the naked eye during a totally eclipsed sun (which is rather brighter than a full moon), but if it is 2 magnitudes brighter than this it should be visible. 

John 

[Aramcheck]

Here's the comet from the 14th Oct (last Saturday). 42 x 3min exposures with Skywatcher 200pds & ZWO ASI 2600MCPro, from our Bortle 7/8 back yard in Leeds. Over the 2 hrs 14 min session it moved approx 71 arc seconds.

Not that happy with the processing, but I look forward to trying it again next year (fingers crossed).

Cheers
Ivor

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Had a shot at visually with the C8 with the 22 mm Nagler, and there seemed to be something faint in the right spot, but even in averted vision I couldn't be sure. It is listed as mag 13.0 in COBS for Oct 16, so should be a borderline object for my scope.

[bish]

Saw it at Kielder star camp over the weekend. Luckily somebody had a 20" dob to look at it with.

[CentaurZ]

Below is my overhead chart. The Earth's orbital plane coincides with the plane of the chart, but the comet's orbital plane is inclined by 74˚.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by CentaurZ