[BAA Comets] 2014Q2 Lovejoy tail disturbance

Peter Carson petercarson100 at gmail.com
Thu Apr 23 20:06:48 BST 2015


Hello David,
I'm pleased you got some clear sky at the Kelling astro camp. I had to leave 
on Sunday and that’s when clouds vanished!!
All my half decent comet images are in the BAA Comet image archive, there 
are 37 of 2014Q2 Lovejoy, see 
http://www.britastro.org/cometobs/2014q2/index.html  My images are taken 
from my home observatory which is in an urban light polluted area so 
probably don’t show all the detail that might be visible from a much darker 
rural site. My several recent 2014Q2 images taken over the last few days 
(which Denis will probably load into the archive soon) show the beginnings 
of a broader diffuse dust tail at a different PA to the ion tail. My images 
and other in the archive indicate the difference in PA is perhaps 45 degs 
ish. Do a drawing when next at the telescope and submit it to Denis, the 
section needs visual observations to highlight this very issue.
I don’t think I could get much more detail from my 2014Q2 images even if I 
did longer / more exposures as I’m at the limit of my site.
A number of observers have reported a different visual view of 2014Q2 
compared to that of the imagers. Usually a CCD image will record more coma 
and tail than is visible visually. I’ve no explanation why visual observers 
are seeing more coma on 2014Q2, perhaps other have an opinion?

All the best
Peter

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Reynolds
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 9:21 PM
To: BAA Comets discussion list
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] 2014Q2 Lovejoy tail disturbance

hello Peter

Excellent image, really informative.  Thank you.

I viewed Lovejoy from Kelling Heath (visual) over the weekend and the
last time on Monday night, the latter through much dew and thin cloud.
The comet still looks good.  Monday's sky was not good enough to see the
tails but Sunday night was and we could see two tails at ninety degrees
to each other;  first was a fan the second (ion?) was more of a thinner
streak of uniform width.  Lovejoy has certainly been a good value comet
for many months!

Generally speaking the images of comets show different views from what I
see in the eyepiece.//  My view seems to have more fuzz around the core
giving the impression of a larger head.

I would be very interested to see an image of Lovejoy showing the second
tail, if you have one?  Presumably, this requires a 'longer exposure'
(or whatever in digi-speak) to capture the fainter material whilst
'adjusting' to avoid an over exposed core.

cheers
David Reynolds
South Norfolk




On 15/04/2015 01:28, Peter Carson wrote:
> Hi All,
> C/2014Q2 Lovejoy seems to have undergone a significant tail disturbance 
> earlier this evening. My image 
> http://www.astromania.co.uk/2014Q2_20150414_2126_PCarson.jpg shows a 
> disconnection / disturbance larger than I've seen recently.
> All the best
> Peter
> _______________________________________________
> Comets-disc mailing list
> Comets-disc at britastro.org
> http://lists.britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/comets-disc

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