Observation by Nick James: Comet 12P on a meteor camera

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2024 Feb 24 - 20:00

Uploaded

2024 Feb 25 - 14:26

Objects

12P Pons-Brooks

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Constellation

Lacerta

Field centre

RA: 22^h31^m
Dec: +45°31'
Position angle: +32°21'

Field size

50° × 29°

Equipment

IMX291 + 6mm f/0.95

Exposure

3000 x 1/25s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

12P/Pons-Brooks

Title

Comet 12P on a meteor camera

About this image

This comet is now approaching naked-eye visibility from dark sites. The latest estimates put the total magnitude at 6.6. It should brighten to around mag 4 by mid-April. It is definitely worth finding it in the evening sky. It is currently on the border of Lacerta and Andromeda.

I've been out the last few evenings when it has been clear in the early evening from Chelmsford so have not been able to observe it. One of my meteor cameras (UK004D) looks in that direction though so I wondered if the comet could be detected with a bit of image processing. The camera has an IMX291 sensor and a 6mm FL, f/0.95 lens and it generates compressed video at 25 fps. This image is the result of stacking 12 sets of the 256 frame average images generated by the GMN meteor detection software. The stack was tracked on the stars and then I removed the horrible background caused by the full Moon.

The field of view stretches from M31 in the top left to Cygnus in the bottom right. I believe that I have detected the comet. It is just below SAO 73086 which has a catalogue magnitude of 6.9.

I'll try this again when the Moon is out of the sky.

Files associated with this observation

12p_20240224_2000_ndj.jpg (344.2 kB)

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Mike Harlow

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