[BAA Comets] P/2014 X1 (Elenin)

[Nick James]

Morning Tony,

Good to see you at the BAA Christmas Meeting on Saturday.

> Another dramatic unfolding of a new comet over the past 36 hours.
>
> According to Leonid  it is 17m (by UCAC4) and 18m (by USNO B1.0)
> It is Leonid's third comet.
> http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K14/K14X66.html

I managed to book a 10 min slot on iTelescope T21 this morning and got 
two 120s frames which I've stacked:

http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/2014/2014x1_20141215_0655_ndj.jpg

After a rainy night it cleared briefly in Chelmsford at around 0640 and 
I managed to get six 60s frames with my C11 with Auriga low in the NW. 
These also show the comet just a few minutes before the NM images:

http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/2014/2014x1_20141215_0650_ndj.jpg

Astrometrica gives a magnitude of around 17.3 using UCAC-4.

Congratulations to Leonid. Great to see that amateurs can still beat the 
surveys!

Nick.