CHRISTMAS COMET AND A FADING STAR

Location:  Front porch, Little Lepreau, NB, Canada

Date Time:  December 26, 2019 1830-2200hrs

Weather:  No wind, to slight breeze, bitter cold, -12.5C, 64% humidity, mostly clear to clear, no dew.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel t3 connected to telescope at prime focus and with an 18-55mm lens.  Images stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed with PhotoShop.

Attendance:  David McCashion

Objective:  To image Comet C/2017 T2 Panstarrs and to view and image Orions alpha star, Betelgeuse as it has been reported to be diminishing in brightness since October of this year.

Report:

• Aligned telescope on four stars, Altair low in the west, Fomalhaut low in the south south west, Aldebaran low in the East, and Capella high in the north east.
• Also aligned scope on Venus, which was low in the south west at about 1835hrs.  While setting up to image Venus, clouds covered that part of the sky.
• Located and imaged Comet C/2017 T2 for two hours.  Comet is still too faint to see without the aid of a medium sized telescope.  Images showed significant movement of the comet, north eastward, towards the w of Cassiopeia. Comet's placement in the sky is about halfway up in the north east, in northern Perseus, after first dark.  As the evening goes on, it quickly moves high overhead, making it difficult to image.

15x120 second, ISO 1600, f/6.25, cropped. Total of 35 minutes of processed imaging. Shows comet moving north over two hours of imaging.

• Imaged the comet from about 7-9pm.  At 715pm a satellite crossed through the image field of view.

This is the only comet image that hasn't been cropped.

• Wanted to show how the comet moved over two hours in a different way.  Tried making a video of the 15x 120 second images, but it didn't turn out well.

•  Processed these three images that were taken at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm, also to show how far it moved over the 2 hour period.  Notice how it moves away from the star it almost covers at 7pm.

7pm

8pm

9pm

• There has been much chatter on the internet, by amateur and professional astronomers and even the main stream media, about the dimming of Orion's alpha star, Betelgeuse.  It is noticeable to the unaided eye, and it was reported, officially, in October of this year.
• In Robert Burnham, Jr.'s Burnham's Celestial Handbook, he describes Betelgeuse's variability like this, "The main period appears to be about 5.7 years, but there are shorter superimposed periods which vary between 150 and 300 days.  When at maximum the star sometimes rises to  magnitude 0.4 when it appears not greatly inferior to Rigel;  in 1839 and again in 1852 it was thought by some observers to be nearly the equal of Capella.  Observations by the AAVSO indicate that Betelgeuse probably reached magnitude 0.2 in 1933 and again in 1942."  From this and other observations regarding Betelgeuse, it's magnitude is a confusing subject.
• Took two twenty second images of Orion.  The second image of Orion was purposely out of focus to show how bright Betelgeuse is compared to the other stars in it's constellation.

Betelgeuse's magnitude has dimmed from a normal of about 0.4 to 1.12.  The lowest measurement of magnitude 1.12 was taken by scientists on December 7, 2019 and is the lowest it's been in 25 years of continuous observing.

Out of focus to more easily view the magnitude difference of Orion's brighter stars.  Sirius in the lower left is in another constellation and is the brightest star that can be seen from New Brunswick, Canada.

• Many satellites were seen, with one imaged, and one shooting star, passing under the field of view of camera, as imaging.  It was a slow mover coming from the direction of Polaris heading toward Orion.