Comet 217P/LINEAR P/2009 F3 (no. 459) After having faded to magnitude 12 1/2 or 13 last month, this comet -- now over three months past perihelion passage -- seems to have brightened some in the recent past, appearing as a fairly diffuse 12th-magnitude object when I observed it last night; it still appears somewhat elongated, suggestive of the tail that was evident when it was closer to perihelion. Whether or not this can be considered an outburst is an open question, although it's worth recalling that the comet underwent a one-magnitude outburst in mid-October. In any event, the comet is currently going through opposition and is located in central Orion three degrees south-southwest of the bright star Betelgeuse (and four degrees south-southwest of the below comet); it is traveling towards the northwest at a little over 20 arcminutes per day, passing 2 1/2 degrees southwest of Betelgeuse on December 20. Normally I would expect the comet to resume fading soon, although based on its current brightness and behavior it may well remain visually detectable for perhaps another month or more.
I had a bit of a look xmas night, The mag limit with the 6" refractor was 10.55 at 46X 1.13 TFOV.A no go.
Dodging clouds I got the 12" Dob out and force cooled it.At 50X It seems Comet 217 Linear is approx > mag 12 slightly diffuse is
5h 56m 5.9 +7deg18' 39.1".
Any images?
Hi!
Just finished for the night, so I swung round for a shot. Not the same focal length as yours, heavily stretched and slightly out of focus. Unfortunately, I do not see any thing abnormal. I have a stack of 10x30sec frames I can do for you tomorrow arvo with calibration frames if you want, they will look cleaner.
Cheers.
