Newly-Discovered Comet Elenin Imaged from Blue Mountain Vista Observatory

Dick Steinberg

We caught Comet C/2010 X1 Elenin in two images on 2011-01-03 UT 08:20 and 2011-01-06 UT 07:40. A blink comparison is shown in http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro2/solar_system/comets/comet elenin.gif .

The exposures were 45 and 60 minutes, respectively, in somewhat hazy conditions. The comet is quite faint, easily outshined by the obscure galaxy USNOA2 0825-07650745, an 18th magnitude object. Estimated magnitude of the comet is about 19. Despite its dimness, the comet seems to exhibit a reasonably well-developed tail, although some of the smeared appearance of the comet is due to its motion during the exposures.

According to Sky and Telescope magazine, the comet may brighten a millionfold, about 15 magnitudes, as it reaches perihelion in about 9 months. If this estimate is correct, the comet would be visible to the unaided eye.

The center of the field is in Virgo at RA 12h 06m 36s, Dec -01° 36' 00". The FOV of the image was cropped to 26 x 22 arc min. North is up. The bright star at bottom center is TYC 4939-367-1 (visual magnitude = 10.75).

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Hyperion 320mm f/8 corrected Cassegrain - Paramount ME - Apogee U16M unbinned - 0.73 arcsec/pixel - Blue Mountain Vista Observatory, New Ringgold PA - guiding, acquisition and processing: MaxIm DL 5.10 - automation: CCD Commander