Observation by Nick James: C/2021 A1 (Leonard) low in the morning s...

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2021 Dec 11 - 05:30

Uploaded

2021 Dec 11 - 18:44

Objects

C/2021 A1

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Constellation

Hercules

Field centre

RA: 16^h41^m
Dec: +08°05'
Position angle: -4°36'

Field size

17° × 10°

Equipment

Sony A7s, Canon 80-200 mm f/2.8 lens

Exposure

31x10s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Title

C/2021 A1 (Leonard) low in the morning sky

About this image

I got up at 4:30am and headed to a nearby spot east of Chelmsford which has a clear east horizon and reasonably dark skies. When I left cloud was moving in slowly from the west. It was already past overhead and it covered the comet around 05:40. The sky between the edge of the cloud and the horizon was hazy. The 200mm FL stacked image shows a tail of around 2 deg but the comet was low and so this would have been considerably longer if it had been higher in the sky.

I saw the comet in 10x50s but just as a faint fuzz. No tail. Even though it wasn't that impressive I'm pleased I made the effort since that is it now for me. More southerly observers will be able to follow it now.

Comphot gives a total magnitude of 5.5 from the 200mm FL image which is probably an underestimate given how low down the comet was.

Files associated with this observation

2021a1_20211211_0530_ndj.jpg (3.3 MB)

Like this image

Peter Mulligan, Alan C Tough, David Swan, Nik Szymanek, Mike Harlow

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