Three comets.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi,

A few comets around at the moment that are worth imaging.

C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS, image taken 3/10, very small with a short tail, recent visual estimates around 11.5 to 12.

C/2011 R1 McNaught, image taken 3/10, showing a broad tail and nice colour, guide 8 has it at 11.8.

168P Hergenrother, image taken 7/10, this comet is in outburst at the moment, visual estimates 9.8 to 10. very bright nucleus and tail.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Paul Haese]

Nice captures Justin. You also have a nice interacting galaxy pair in that last image.

[leon]

Agreed, top captures indeed.

leon

[Liz]

Well done Justin, a lovely little tail in each. :thumbsup:

Am going to have a look for 168P tonight, as been working the last couple of nights. :)

[lepton3]

Excellent images Justin. The "outburst" is spectacular indeed.

-Ivan

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Justin. Also going to try for 168P tonight.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks for the comments!

It's nice to have a few comets to image, having withdrawl symptoms after Lovejoy.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Matt Wastell]

Wow - I enjoyed these - image 3 looks to show quite a few galaxies - cool!

[jjjnettie]

Nice work Justin. :)

[Clayton]

Nice work Justin :)

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Matt, jjj and Rob!

Cheers,

Justin.

[astroron]

Nice images there Justin:)
Just to be a bit picky,you cannot see the nucleus of a comet in ground based telescopes,what you are seeing is the bright Coma.
The Nucleus is hidden by the bright Coma
See Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_nucleus)
The Coma can be very large,but the nucleus is really quite small.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Larryp]

Great images, Justin!:thumbsup:

[Astroman]

Nice work Justin, for a second or two when I saw the title, I thought you had found your third :)

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Oop's!

Thanks for pointing that out.



Thanks larry!



Thanks Andrew!

And I wish!!:prey:

Cheers,

Justin.

[Curt]

Great shots mate. I saw Hergenrother a few weeks ago and now I have comet fever. Is hergenrother still in outburst or is it fading.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Curt!

Don't know whether it's still in outburst, the last observation I can find is on Oct 18th at mag 9.5.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!msg/b-a-s/A2YBdWSoABY/4nt2IBLqC68J

It does appear that it may be fragmenting, the info can be found here.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/message/20066

Cheers,

Justin.

[nandopg]

Great work justin. My favorite is image 3. The view of the comets iserted on those star fields is amazing.

Fernando