Re: Comet 73P fragment B splits in two

George Normandin wrote:
"David Nakamoto" <> wrote
...
eddie wrote:
I couldn't see it and haven't seen it yet from suburban Philly maybe
due to
light pollution. Has the comet deviated from the track in Sky &
Telescope?

Depends on your equipment. It's listed as 9th (?) mag for the brightest fragments, but I suspect you'll see first the star-like nucleus with perhaps the outline of the coma, and maybe the tail, depending on your equipment and conditions.......

Both fragments B & C were easy in my 20-inch F/5 (26mm Nagler EP) from mag 6 sky (my front yard in rural NY). One had an obvious nucleus, but it was not 'star-like' but rather a bright fuzz-ball about 1 arc minute in diameter, surrounded by a larger 3x5 arc minute coma. The tail was about 15 arc minutes. The other fragment was more a 'ghost comet' with only a defuse even illumination about 3 to 5 arc minutes. It was so defuse that it was easy to see background stars right thru it. It also had a tail about 15 arc minutes long. These comet fragments were noticeably more difficult to see than M81/82 which I had observed just before them. That's probably because they cover a much larger area.

George N

Good report George. However, given that you had a big light bucket working in very dark skies, your results won't reflect how hard this comet might be to see from suburban skies and much smaller telescopes. As I wrote, depends on your equipment, and I would add your seeing conditions. Comets are very similar to spiral galaxies. Depending on what is actually there, it might be easy to see, and it might be hard to see.

Sincerely,
--- Dave Nakamoto
========================================
Gnome, gnome on the range,
Where the deers eat the cantaloupes plain.
Where little birds turd in such curious swirls,
And the skies are all cloudy and strange.
.

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