Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 29P

Periodic Comet in Aries

Uploaded 11/1/05

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 Now beaming softly at a magnitude of 14 in the constellation of Aries, this periodic comet is now fading and will get a magnitude dimmer over the next few weeks. This comet never gets very bright, at best 12th magnitude, and is almost a a bare nucleus having a short enough period to boil off most of the ice. This comet has not a tail to be seen, however it is a bit ruddy. This is one of two comets visible right now in the evening sky.

To make this shot more interesting, I've chosen this composition to have the comet off to the top of the frame, and put a small group of galaxies in the image as well. Here are some of the known details about each object:

CGCG 482-35: 14.8 magnitude, size: .6 arcminutes

CGCG 482-38: 15.6 magnitude, size: 1 arcminute

UGC1478: 14.5 magnitude, size .8 arcminutes, type - SB

UGC 1479: 15.0 magnitude, size 1 arcmin, type S

IC1764: 14.1 magnitude, size 1.4 arcmin, type SB

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Platform: Astrophysics 1200 QMD Camera: Canon 10D @ ISO400 Exposure: 3 x 5m Filters: None Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 7/10, Transparency 7/10 Outside Temperature: 50F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS, Maxim DL, PixInsight, Canon Raw HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS FastCounter by bCentral