Comet Images by Faulkes & Liverpool Telescopes

Below you can find a selection of some of the comets we imaged in the last 2 weeks using the 2-meter telescopes of Faulkes (F65 & E10 MPC codes) and the La Palma-Liverpool (J13 MPC code). Click on each image for a bigger version.

Prompted by an alert of A. Diepvens on comet-images mailing list, on January 03 we perfomed some follow-up of C/2010 G2 (Hill); we confirm that this comet was experiencing a bright phase. Co-adding of 9 unfiltered exposures, 15 seconds each, obtained remotely from the Siding Spring-Faulkes Telescope South on 2012, January 03.46 through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD  reveals the comet as a bright featureless star-like object of magnitude 13.2 N
  

C/2010 G2 (Hill)  - 2012, January 03

C/2010 G2 (Hill)  - 2011, December 22 - 2012 January 10

C/2009 F4 (McNaught) - 2012, January 03

Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann - 2012, January 11

Comet 244P/Scotti - 2012, January 11

Comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux - 2012, January 11

Comet P/2011 W2 (RINNER) - 2012, January 11

Comet 164P/Christensen - 2012, January 11

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Giovanni Sostero

Follow-up of 164P/Christensen

On 2010, Oct 28.47, we were able to secure some additional follow-up about the faint returning comet 164P/Cristensen. The images were obtained through the Faulkes Telescope South (Siding Spring, Australia), a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD.

At the time of our observation the comet was about 70 deg above the horizon, in a moonless sky. Under good seeing conditions (FWHM of nearby field stars about 1 arcsec) we stacked several R filtered exposures, 60-sec each, and found the comet moving at the expected postion: 164P/Christensen was a starlike object, at about magnitude R~ 20.

Its measured astrometry was in good agreement with our previous recovery data batch of 2010, Oct 7 and 11 (see our previous post here).

We kindly acknowledge the Faulkes Telescope Project for the telescope time we used.

by N. Howes, G. Sostero and E. Guido

Recovery of Comet 164P/Christensen

MPEC 2010-T98, issued 2010 October 13, reports our recovery of comet 164P/Christensen. We found the comet on October 07 and October 11, 2010 at about magnitude 20.4. We imaged it remotely from D96 code (Moorook) using a 0.15-m f/7.3 refractor + CCD.

On 2010, Oct.11 the seeing conditions at Moorook (Australia) were exceptional, so we had the chance to identify the comet at the very limit of our capabilities, as a faint dot of light (magnitude about 20.4). Then, knowing where to look for, we searched in our archive images, and found it again in our stackings of 2010, Oct. 7; then we had the astrometry over two nights, that was fitting pretty well the expected orbit of 164P.

However comet 164P/Christensen is much fainter (more than 3 magnitudes) compared to the predictions.

Our recovery image (details on image):

Comet 164P/Christensen was last observed (before our recovery) on June 18, 2005 by G96 (Mt. Lemmon Survey).

by G. Sostero, E. Guido, L. Donato & V. Gonano