[BAA Comets] C/2012S1 location image no2

[DENIS BUCZYNSKI]

Hello all,
This morning in clear skies in Highland Scotland I was able to take a series of 60s exposures of the ephemeris location of this comet using C14 telescope and a 300mm f/4 Apo lens and SBIG CCD cameras. The field was above 10 degrees altitude at the time of the exposures (06:30UT). I was UNABLE to find any CONDENSED OBJECT at the ephemeris location down to mag 15 when compared to the DSS field image. It seems that no significant nucleus of this comet survived the perihelion passage.
My images are at the following link on the BAA Comet Gallery.

http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?view=detail&id=2066&option=com_joomgallery

Details of the images are in the text box below the images.


I was not searching for any dust cloud remnant, but for any indication that the nucleus survived. I am sure that it may be possible to image the dust cloud, as Terry Lovejoy has suggested using wide angle fast optics in the same way that the dust cloud remnant of C/2010 X1 was imaged. We know from the spacecraft images that a dust cloud remained but the question of any surviving nucleus was not certain. It was for this purpose that my searches have been made. It would be interesting to examine any deeper images taken in better conditons and at a higher resolution than my imaging set up to be more certain that the nucleus did not survive. 
Perhaps we have seen the death of this comet with the SOHO images at perihelion and no more images will be seen. Ah well!


Denis Buczynski
Tarbatness Observatory MPC Code I81