[BAA Comets] Comet 29P/S-W

[Richard Miles]

Roger Dymock wrote:

> This comet appears to have brightened a little from around 13.4 mid April 
> to 12.8 May 6/7
> (observations by Kevin Hills and myself).
>
> Richard (Miles) - do you have any predictions for outbursts/brightening 
> over the next few weeks?


Roger,

Be careful not to be misled by Total Magnitude (m1) estimates of 29P as they 
are not sensitive to outbursting.

Only use Nuclear Magnitudes (m2).

If you check them out you will see that 29P outburst by 3.0 mag on 2014 May 
01. Jean-Francois Soulier discovered the outburst using SpacObs in Chile. It 
was 3 days later than my last prediction.

I have written an article for the Observers' Forum section of the BAA 
Journal on predicting outbursts of this comet. It should hopefully appear in 
the June issue.

It's rather the off-season for 29P as it is around Declination -29 degrees 
at the moment. Southern hemisphere observers are encouraged to monitor it 
visually and photometrically watching out for stellar-like outbursts of the 
nucleus.

Cheers,
Richard