[BAA Comets] Comet observations from last night

[Nick James]

Hi all,

I thought I'd post some actual comet observations to the BAA list to see 
if anyone else in the UK is imaging these objects.

We've had pretty awful weather in Essex over the past month or so and 
last night was the first night that I have been able to image in 
transparent, clear skies for quite a while. There are a few comets 
around but most of them are faint. Here's a summary of my observations 
(made with a C11 and ST9XE, FOV 12 arcmin square) from last night in 
order of increasing magnitude.

The brightest comet is still C/2009 P1 (Garradd). This has a large coma 
with the bright nucleus offset to the SW, There is a conspicuous tail 
streaming out of the FOV to the NE. It is still quite well placed in the 
west in the late evening.

C/2011 UF305 (LINEAR) - Mag 14.2, Round coma but was involved with a star.

246P (NEAT) - Mag 15.2, Coma extended to SW, short, faint fail to W.

C/2011 F1 (LINEAR) - Mag 15.5, Coma extended to W.

C/2012 A2 (LINEAR) - Mag 17.0, Small round fuzz, no tail

C/2010 R1 (LINEAR) - Approx mag 17.2, hint of faint tail to SE

49P (Arend-Rigaux) - mag 17.7, no sign of the thin tail that was seen 
previously

P/2010 JC81 (WISE) - Mag 17.9, small round coma but involved with star.

It amazes me how often faint comets are tangled up with stars even in 
barren areas of the sky. This can make astrometry a very frustrating 
experience.

I tried for C/2012 B3 (La Sagra) but failed since I had not updated 
comet elements in The Sky and ended up imaging a field around 12 arcmin 
south of the comet's position. Very frustrating but a lesson to be more 
careful next time.

Nick.