Comet 41P Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak has a history of rapid brightening pre-perihelion. It was rather bright at its last two apparitions, and at its 1973 apparition underwent two large outbursts of 9-10 magnitudes peaking at magnitude 4-5. Comet 41P is expected to reach magnitude 10 around perihelion on June 11, but in light of above may well be brighter. It passes from Cancer into Leo in early June and spends the rest of the month in this constellation.
The comet was moving at a relative rate of 2.2 arc seconds per minute on May 23rd. I imaged it at 5.0 arc seconds per pixel, binned 2x2, which allowed two minute exposures without blurring the comet. Actually, with the comet fairly low in the west against the setting sun, I started with 60 second exposures to avoid saturation.
My sky conditions were 20.30 mags/sq arc second at zenith ~ Bortle 4.5 ~ 5.6-5.9 VLM as measured with the Sky Quality Meter; seeing ~ Pickering 3.
Images and supporting data at
http://home.att.net/~dpersyk/new.htm
Thank you for visiting my site.
Clear skies,
Dennis Persyk
Igloo Observatory Home Page http://dpersyk.home.att.net
Hampshire, IL
The comet was moving at a relative rate of 2.2 arc seconds per minute on May 23rd. I imaged it at 5.0 arc seconds per pixel, binned 2x2, which allowed two minute exposures without blurring the comet. Actually, with the comet fairly low in the west against the setting sun, I started with 60 second exposures to avoid saturation.
My sky conditions were 20.30 mags/sq arc second at zenith ~ Bortle 4.5 ~ 5.6-5.9 VLM as measured with the Sky Quality Meter; seeing ~ Pickering 3.
Images and supporting data at
http://home.att.net/~dpersyk/new.htm
Thank you for visiting my site.
Clear skies,
Dennis Persyk
Igloo Observatory Home Page http://dpersyk.home.att.net
Hampshire, IL
