Evolution of the morphology of comet C/2010 V1

The recently discovered comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) has been probably discovered thanks to an outburst. In fact IAUC 9183 reports that Kaoru Ikeya swept the comet's position also on Nov. 1, but did not see the comet down to mag 9-10, despite better conditions than on the 2nd. Moreover the evolution of its coma morphology is rapidly changing from night to night.

Here you can see our last image of this comet (stack of 10X30seconds exposures) obtained on 2010 Nov. 08.5, remotely from the GRAS Observatory (near Mayhill, NM) through a 0.25-m, f/3.4 reflector + CCD.

Below an animation showing the evolution of the morphology of comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) starting from our first image dated Nov. 04 to the last image dated Nov. 08, 2010 (in the animation the image of Nov. 7 is not present due to cloudy sky):

by Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero

Comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami)

The new bright morning comet announced yesterday has been officially designated C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami). The mpec 2010-V46 with the first and preliminary orbit has been issued and it shows the perihelion already on Oct. 18, 2010, at about 1.7 AU.

Today we performed again some follow-up of this bright object to obtain more astrometric measures that are important to compute a reliable orbit. Below you can see the image (stack of 10X20seconds exposures) obtained on 2010 Nov. 05.5, remotely from the GRAS Observatory (near Mayhill, NM) through a 0.25-m, f/3.4 reflector + CCD. It's still evident the strong central condensation and the elongation toward PA 295.

According to COCD webpage this is the 7th visual comet discovery for Ikeya (co-discoverer also of the famous 1965's sungrazer Comet Ikeya-Seki) and the 2nd for Murakami.

by Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero