[BAA Comets] Small outburst of Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

[Roger Dymock]

Comet 29P has been monitored by the Spanish Comet Observing Group since 2002. As the
charts at http://www.astrosurf.com/cometas-obs/ show this comet is fairly regular in
its outbursts. As Richard mentions, the 2010 outburst was stronger as were those in
2007 and 2008. Since that time the outbursts seem to have diminished somewhat.

Any thoughts anyone as to why those particular years produced stronger outbursts ?

Regards

Roger Dymock
Email: roger.dymock at ntlworld.com
Tel: 023 92647986
Skype: rogerdymock67 or
Skype: rjvdymock
MPC Observatory Code: 940
Project Alcock http://www.britastro.org/projectalcock/


-----Original Message-----
From: comets-disc-bounces at britastro.org [mailto:comets-disc-bounces at britastro.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Miles
Sent: 16 April 2013 21:19
To: BAA Comets discussion list
Cc: Paul Roche; Alison Tripp (FT)
Subject: [BAA Comets] Small outburst of Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

It appears that this comet has outburst around April 14. Thanks to imaghes 
taken by 3 schools/colleges working with the Faulkes Telescope team, we have 
some images taken earlier today which I have processed and analysed.

The mages of 29P taken with the Faulkes Telescopes North and South on April 
12 and April 16 can be found at:
http://britastro.org/~rmiles/Images/29P_2013Apr12-16_labelA.jpg

There appears to be a condensation in the coma about 2.0" from the 
pseudonucleus as shown when a rotational gradient filter of 20 degrees 
(courtesy of IRIS software) is applied.
N.B. This is quite a weak outburst compared to what we witnessed back in 
2010 for example.

It is interesting to compare the April 16.53 Faulkes R-filter image with 
that obtained by Jean-Francois Soulier about April 16.01. See:
http://6888comete.free.fr/fr/image29Pschwassmannwachmannfrance.htm

His image is unfiltered and shows a much more spherical (larger?) shell. I 
suspect that there may be emission in the blue and green due to expanding 
gas which contributes to the unfiltered image but which does not show up in 
the R-filter image

Rolando Ligustri's image of April 16.42 taken also with an R filter is much 
more similar in appearance to the Faulkes image. See:
https://plus.google.com/photos/107386404051271210368/albums/5452252571099371489/58675
06591815737218?banner=pwa

We know that CO is released when 29P outbursts and this gas may be 
fluorescing and so is detectable visually or with an unfiltered CCD but not 
an R-filtered image!

Richard Miles
BAA 

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