[BAA-ebulletin 00637] 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.

2011 December 13

Jonathan Shanklin
Director, Comet Section


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