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Monday, January 8, 2018

QUICK COMET SEARCH

Location:  Side yard by large shed, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  January 7, 2018 1834-1840hrs

Weather:  Clear, some breeze, -14C with reported windchil of -23C.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel Xsi with 75-300mm lenses.  Tripod.  Images processed on arcsoftmediaIpressions.

Attendance:  Myself.

Objective:  To capture an image of the faint Comet PanSTARRS C/2016 R2 which was reported to be in Taurus during observing time.

Report:

  • Comet was not visible through viewscreen of camera, or obviously appear in images.  It must be very diffuse and faint, or, might not have been in the location where it was reported to be.  
  • Comet is still far away but getting closer, for closest approach to Earth in May, so it will probably brighten significantly.  Will be watching this comet closely right up to the summer.
  • No shooting stars or satellites were seen.
Images:



Comet was reported to be above Lambda Tauri.
Note:  An interesting aspect of this particular comet is that it appears blue, which, according to the spaceweather.com article is because its rich in ionized carbon monoxide(CO).  This is rare, as most comets are rich in cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2) which makes the vast majority of comets appear green in images.  Visually, in the eyepiece, or in binoculars, I find most comets appear as gray fuzzballs, with the brighter ones appearing slightly greenish.  I've never seen a blue comet before.

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