Comet Lemmon, disconnected tail?

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Hi,

Here's comet Lemmon from last night 07/02/2013, I was lucky to get it with cloud allowing an hour window.

I used the ED80 again without the baader fringe killer, hoping to get more faint tail. I was surprised once the images started coming up to see the tail seems to be disconnected, with a knot half way along the tail. The disconnected section seems to be moving of in a different direction.

Not sure whats going on here??

I've supplied two images, the stacked image and a false colour single frame too show a little more detail.

This comet sure is interesting!
ED80, field flattener,
Unmodded Canon 1100D plus cooler box.
HEQ Pro 5 mount.


Cheers,

Justin.

[WingnutR32 (Sam)]

Could it be some kind of parallax error?

Perhaps the two tails are in line with each other making it look like one tail with a blip in the middle?

[JohnG (John)]

Got a similar result last night (070213) myself.

Inverted view is heavily stretched.

Cheers

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by WingnutR32

Could it be some kind of parallax error?

Perhaps the two tails are in line with each other making it look like one tail with a blip in the middle?

Hi Sam,

Hmm don't know, need a comet expert.

Hoping someone with higher resolution gear imaged it last night. This would help sort things out.

Cheers,

Justin.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Got a similar result last night (070213) myself.

Inverted view is heavily stretched.

Cheers

Thanks John!

Your image shows more detail, does appear to be a knot there. Also looks like it's not disconnected.

Cheers,

Justin.

[allan gould]

Nice images all round. Havnt seen it yet - damned light pollution and neighbours

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Nice images all round. Havnt seen it yet - damned light pollution and neighbours

i agree the light pollution kills it for me as well

[MortonH]

Nothing on the web about a disconnection event, but maybe you were the first to see it!

[Scorpius51 (John)]

Originally Posted by MortonH

Nothing on the web about a disconnection event, but maybe you were the first to see it!

Here are a few links for other comets, describing the processes:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...ews/encke.html

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/disconnect/

http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personn...lReconnect.pdf

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News+and+Events/4831.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F8KsOs3ls

http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/...1977.text.html

Cheers
John

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Nice images all round. Havnt seen it yet - damned light pollution and neighbours

Thanks Allan!

Hope you get to observve it soon.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

i agree the light pollution kills it for me as well

Ditto for you David!

Originally Posted by MortonH

Nothing on the web about a disconnection event, but maybe you were the first to see it!

Thanks Morton!

I've emailed the image to Michael Mattiazzo, our southern comets man.
Hopefully he'll have a better idea.

Originally Posted by Scorpius51

Here are a few links for other comets, describing the processes:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...ews/encke.html

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/disconnect/

http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personn...lReconnect.pdf

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News+and+Events/4831.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F8KsOs3ls

http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/...1977.text.html

Cheers
John

Thanks for all that info!

The 2007 event with Comet Encke is amazing!

Cheers,

Justin.

[gregbradley]

It looks like a chunk blew off or it had an outburst earlier and is moving away from that.

I imaged it extensively last night with both CDK17 and a DSLR lens setup.

I haven't processed it yet. I have 2 nights worth. I didn't notice that in the subs though.

Greg.

[Outbackmanyep]

Yep, it's a disconnection event, it's affected by the solar wind changing polarity, ie: the comet crossing the heliospheric current sheet.

Funnily enough, Terry Lovejoy captured one on his latest image of L4 PanStarrs too.

Cheers!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

It looks like a chunk blew off or it had an outburst earlier and is moving away from that.

I imaged it extensively last night with both CDK17 and a DSLR lens setup.

I haven't processed it yet. I have 2 nights worth. I didn't notice that in the subs though.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

Looking forward to your image.

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

Yep, it's a disconnection event, it's affected by the solar wind changing polarity, ie: the comet crossing the heliospheric current sheet.

Funnily enough, Terry Lovejoy captured one on his latest image of L4 PanStarrs too.

Cheers!

Thanks for that!

Nice to have confirmation.
These comets are keeping us on our toes!

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

Amazing capture Justin.

What exposure times did you use?

Ross.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

Amazing capture Justin.

What exposure times did you use?

Ross.

Thanks Ross!

150 sec exposures.

Cheers,

Justin.

[orestis]

Stunning image Justin,

That is a most interesting phenomena, could a break off be caused by a large coronal mass ejection?

cheers
Orestis

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by Scorpius51

Here are a few links for other comets, describing the processes:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...ews/encke.html
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/disconnect/
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personn...lReconnect.pdf
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News+and+Events/4831.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9F8KsOs3ls
http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/...1977.text.html

Nice links... thanks.


It'll be interesting to see how the knot matures over time.

Great find, I bet experts are scratching their head wondering why they didn't catch the event.

OIC!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by orestis

Stunning image Justin,

That is a most interesting phenomena, could a break off be caused by a large coronal mass ejection?

cheers
Orestis

Thanks Oretis!

Don't think there's been any mass ejections recently, but solar wind related.

Originally Posted by OICURMT

Nice links... thanks.


It'll be interesting to see how the knot matures over time.

Great find, I bet experts are scratching their head wondering why they didn't catch the event.

OIC!

Thanks OIC!

Cheers,

Justin.