[BAA-ebulletin 00780] BAA Comet Section

[BAA electronic bulletins service]

I'm pleased to announce the publication of the latest edition of what is now the Comet Section Journal, rather than its Newsletter, as it fills 50 pages.  You can download it from the Section web page at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/tail33.pdf .  There are one or two typos that need correcting, but as a first edition I'm sure it will be all the more valuable!

If you want to observe a binocular comet you will need to get up early, and there will be moonlight for at least another week.  2013 R1 (Lovejoy) is fading quite rapidly, but still an easy object under dark skies.  2012 X1 (LINEAR) underwent an outburst in December, but seems to have settled down to more normal cometary behaviour.  It is likely to remain at around 8th to 9th magnitude for a couple of months, but stays in the morning sky.

Hopefully on the evening of January 20 we will receive the exciting news that the Rosetta spacecraft has woken up, and can then look forward to exciting close up images of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko later in the year.

Clear skies,
Jonathan Shanklin,
BAA Comet Section Director

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