45p 20161225 0119 molason

Comet 45Ps tail appears to have had a disconnection event as a stream of debris is shown separating from the coma and the resulting shorter tail over the 36 minutes that these images cover. The comet was setting over the mountains to the southwest of Denver just after dusk and thus the images are not as clear as one would normally see. Unfortunately, Image 4 was taken with a red filter, I did not realize this event had happen until processing the images. The tail is 1/2 degree long in these images, but as one can see it extends beyond the images.