[AZ-Observing] Re: Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
- From: "Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)" <mrgalaxy@xxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:28:54 GMT
15480 Empire Rd.
Benson, AZ 85602
hm ph: 520-586-2244 I guess what I saw was a CME from about images 2011-12-12
22:30 to about 2011-12-13 00:30. Then inexplicably the LASCO C3 camera went
down for about 6 hours and by that time nothing more was to be seen...
Clear skies,
Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, evac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:31:11 -0500
An interesting sungrazing comet will be entering the field of the SOHO LASCO C3
camera on Wednesday. At that time, it's expected to be around magnitude 5,
which should make it easy to see in the frame. Then it may reach magnitude -2
or so before it almost certainly gets torn to shreds by the sun. If it somehow
survives perihelion -- which is only one-tenth of the sun's diameter -- it may
become visible in the night sky.
The comet was discovered by Terry Lovejoy in Australia, who uses an inexpensive
setup with a C8 and a consumer-level camera. It is extremely rare for
sungrazers to be discovered in this manner. Terry has discovered more than 140
sungrazing comets by looking at frames downloaded from orbiting solar
observatories.
A good source of information for this comet, presented blog style, is the
Sungrazing Comets Web site (they've got a site for everything!) run by Karl
Battams. http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=news/birthday_comet .
Already the comet has entered the STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations
Observatory) frame, as you can see on his site.
Comet Lovejoy will enter the SOHO LASCO C3 frame from the south early on
Wednesday. Look for it at this site.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/
It's possible that we will get to see the destruction of a sungrazing comet
this week.
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