[BAA Comets] C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) fading

[denis buczynski]

Hello all,My image of 20170418  (link below) shows the comet has an elongated head without noticeable coma.Also the astrometry was very difficult with no easly definable center to measure. The residuals were quite large. Still the comet has appeared brighter than we expected, as the prospects just after discovery were not considered good. It will be interesting to see if we can image this comet through its breakup phase during the next few weeks.Denis BuczynskiBAA Comet Section


http://www.britastro.org/cometobs/2017e4/2017e4_20170418_0245_dgb.jpg

An interesting description of the latest information about the breakup of this comet is here at this link 
 C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) – time of death – Comet research

  
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C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) – time of death – Comet research
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      From: Nick James <ndj at nickdjames.com>
 To: BAA Comets discussion list <comets-disc at lists.britastro.org>; comets-disc at britastro.org; comets-ml at yahoogroups.com 
Cc: Johan Warell <johan.warell at gmail.com>
 Sent: Wednesday, 19 April 2017, 8:19
 Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) fading
   
Johan,

I imaged the comet this morning in a brightening sky and it has 
definitely faded significantly since my last observation.

https://www.britastro.org/node/9942

There is no longer any starlike centre and the coma is spead out in a 
line around 30 arcsec long. This makes astrometry very difficult. It 
looks to me as though the nucleus is breaking up as the comet approaches 
perihelion.

Nick.

On 19/04/2017 08:11, Johan Warell wrote:
> Observed comet Lovejoy early this morning, now about 5 degrees south of
> M31. It was fainter and more diffuse than I expected and somewhat of a
> disappointment. I estimated mag 9.5, dia 3 and DC 4 with 40x100 binos on a
> clear and dark (NELM 6.6) sky, just before moonrise. It was at a low (10
> degrees) altitude which made the estimate somewhat uncertain.
>
> There was nine-day lapse of observations on COBS, at that time it was about
> mag 7.0. Is this comet fading faster than expected?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Johan
>
> Lindby Obs (K60)
> Skurup, Sweden
> _______________________________________________
> Comets-disc mailing list
> Comets-disc at lists.britastro.org
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