[BAA-ebulletin 00636] Comet 2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

[BAA electronic bulletins service]

Comet 2011 W3 (Lovejoy) is a small Kreutz-group comet that will reach
perihelion at 0.0055 AU on December 16.02.  It is the first Kreutz
comet to be discovered from the ground for many years, and was found
by Terry Lovejoy, an amateur astronomer.  Historically, Kreutz-group
comets have been spectacular sights, but this comet is intrinsically
very faint and is unlikely to survive perihelion, and it may well fade
even before perihelion.  Its elongation at the time of perihelion is
very small, and it is unlikely to be visible from the ground.  The
comet could brighten very rapidly in the few hours prior to
perihelion, being as bright as Venus for a three hour period from
around 23:00 on December 15.  During this period its solar elongation
is less than one degree and it will pass behind the Sun between 00:20
and 00:54.  It is possible that the comet might be detected in
suitable spectral filters, but due precautions need to be taken.  In
particular unprotected visual observation might result in accidental
blindness.  The best views are likely to be in the SOHO and STEREO
spectrographs, though the comet may saturate the detectors - see
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html for SOHO
images.

The brightest comet visible in a dark sky is currently comet 2009 P1
(Garradd), which remains at around 7th magnitude, and fairly well
placed in the evening sky in Hercules.  Details of how to observe
comets are in the Section booklet, which is available from the BAA
Office.


Jonathan Shanklin
Director, Comet Section
2011 December 13