2021a1 20211219 0123 molason

A nice clear evening for viewing the comet except for the Full Moon. It appears the comet has brightened some in the last day with Astrometrica calculating magnitudes of G=4.1 and V=4.5 on 2021 December 19 UT. The comet coma is now only 9' wide with the just as wide fan Tail fading into the Moonlit sky at 25' at PA 89 degrees. The tail has become an extension of the coma and the coma is not very well defined, at least not in the moonlit skies this evening. It was visible in 7x50 binoculars. I had heard some talk about it being orange in color by some imagers, when the comet went below an altitude of 4 degrees this evening the comet started fading in the green filter and was so faint below 2 degrees with a green filter that one wondered if the camera was working correctly, the orange comet was 10s RGB images collected at an altitude of 3 degrees. 

Page last updated: Sun 2 Apr 08:18:42 BST 2023