Observation by Nick James: Expansion of comet 29P

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2022 Nov 25 - 22:00

Uploaded

2022 Nov 26 - 22:49

Objects

29P Schwassmann-Wachmann

Equipment

ASI6200MM + Celestron HD11

Exposure

4x20x60s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

29P

Title

Expansion of comet 29P

About this image

This shows the expansion of the coma of comet 29P over four consecutive nights. The field of view is 2.4 arcmin square which corresponds to approx. 550,000 km at the comet. I get the following coma diameters from Comphot:

2022-11-22.9    23 arcsec
2022-11-23.9    28 arcsec
2022-11-24.9    34 arcsec
2022-11-25.9    40 arcsec

At the comet's distance of 5.3 au, one arcsecond corresponds to around 3,800 km. The observed radius is expanding at around 3 arcsec/day which implies an average expansion velocity of around 130 m/s.

Files associated with this observation

29p_expansion_202211.gif (489.7 kB)

Like this image

Mattia Piccoli, Bill Leatherbarrow, Callum Potter, Peter Mulligan, Grant Privett, Tim Haymes, Mazin Younis, David Basey, Martina McGovern, Peter Carson, Honor Wheeler

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