Observation by Peter Carson: Comet C/2021A1 (Leonard)

Uploaded by

Peter Carson

Observer

Peter Carson

Observed

2021 Dec 11 - 05:49

Uploaded

2021 Dec 11 - 13:10

Objects

C/2021 A1

Planetarium overlay









Constellation

Hercules

Field centre

RA: 16h25m
Dec: +07°16'
Position angle: -39°12'

Field size

13° × 8°

Equipment
  • 100mm lens f2 and Canon 60Da at 640 ISO
  • Astrotrac
Exposure

Stack of 5 x 30 sec exposures

Location

Paglesham, Essex

Target name

Comet C/2021A1 (Leonard)

Title

Comet C/2021A1 (Leonard)

About this image

 

My alarm went off at 4.15am. I headed east to Paglesham, Essex, about 8 miles away, where the sky is darker as you look out over the sea. I thought the sky was clear when I left home, but as I moved away from the lights of the Southend area I could see a large bank of cloud approaching from the West.  When I arrived at about 04.50am the cloud covered half the sky and appeared to be moving fast. I wondered at that point if it was worth staying because I knew that by the time the comet rose to a useful altitude it would probably be 100% cloudy.

 I persevered, set up, scanned around near the horizon and thought I could see the comet in 7x50 bins. A picture with my DSLR confirmed it. It was then a race between the cloud and the rising comet. As the sky clouded over the only area remaining clear contained the comet...how lucky was that! I continued until about 05.50 by which time it was completely cloudy.

 At around 05.40am I could see about 2 degrees of tail in my 7x50 bins and wondered if I could see the comet naked eye, but think it was probably my imagination.

 This image is a stack of 5 x 30 sec exposures with the cloud just out of the field of view. The image records a little more tail than I was seeing in Bino’s.

 I’m pleased I made the effort as it seems it was just the extreme east of the UK that was clear and this was the only time I’ve seen the comet visually.

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