Three comets.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

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.

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

[lepton3 (Ivan)]

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

-Ivan

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

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

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Thanks for the comments!

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

Cheers,

Justin.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

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

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Nice work Justin.

[Clayton]

Nice work Justin

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Thanks Matt, jjj and Rob!

Cheers,

Justin.

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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
The Coma can be very large,but the nucleus is really quite small.
Cheers

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Great images, Justin!

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

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

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by 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
The Coma can be very large,but the nucleus is really quite small.
Cheers

Oop's!

Thanks for pointing that out.

Originally Posted by Larryp

Great images, Justin!

Thanks larry!

Originally Posted by Astroman

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

Thanks Andrew!

And I wish!!

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 (Justin Tilbrook)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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/?fro...Y/4nt2IBLqC68J

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

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/c.../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