This comet discovered by PanSTARRS survey is expected to become a great magnitude 0 comet in Spring of 2013. Here I will try to follow it monthly and see how it brightens as it travels towards the Sun.
Here are the images on the discovery night (credit Credit: Henry Hsieh, PS1SC):
03/13/2013
And finally, Panstarrs is visible from my backyard!
06/23/2012
Although remotely controlled telescopes do an extremely good job, still there's nothing like capturing an image of a faint comet from your backyard! Here I used DSLR attached to my 8" SCT to capture the light of C/2011 L4 from my suburban home. It's not a pretty picture, but I had a lot of fun taking it, especially because there were not bright stars nearby and I don't have a go-to mount!
06/14/2012
Almost exactly a year since its discovery by PanSTARRS the comet is now moving between constellations of Scorpion and Libra and has reached magnitude 12. It is now 3.3 and 4.3AU away from the Earth and Sun respectively. It crossed the orbit of Jupiter in March and won't reach Mars orbit until January 2012. A small tail is clearly visible on stacked image.
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.22025 15 50 00.09 -25 47 03.2 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.22882 15 49 59.45 -25 47 02.7 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.23578 15 49 58.92 -25 47 02.1 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.24109 15 49 58.52 -25 47 02.1 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.24803 15 49 57.94 -25 47 01.4 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.25266 15 49 57.63 -25 47 01.6 14.6 N 857
04/22/2012
Over the past few weeks the comet kept moving through dense star fields and crossed the border of the constellation Scorpius. Here it is easily seen as bright magnitude 15 object. The images were taken with 370mm Riegel telescope.
It is somewhere in here... (this one was actually taken with Takahashi Epsilon 250 the following night). The bright star is 25 Sco.
COD 857
OBS A. Kostin
MEA A. Kostin
TEL 0.37-m f/14 reflector + CCD
NET PPMXL
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.40209 16 47 48.59 -25 19 10.0 15.4 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.42293 16 47 47.71 -25 19 12.2 15.4 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.44375 16 47 46.79 -25 19 14.3 15.4 N 857
04/01/2012
Below is a composite of two images taken on 03/29 and 04/01/2012 as the comet was traveling close to the border of Ophiuchus (Змееносец) and Scorpius. The comet is very close to the galactic equator as you can see from the number of stars!
Here are the images on the discovery night (credit Credit: Henry Hsieh, PS1SC):
03/13/2013
And finally, Panstarrs is visible from my backyard!
06/23/2012
Although remotely controlled telescopes do an extremely good job, still there's nothing like capturing an image of a faint comet from your backyard! Here I used DSLR attached to my 8" SCT to capture the light of C/2011 L4 from my suburban home. It's not a pretty picture, but I had a lot of fun taking it, especially because there were not bright stars nearby and I don't have a go-to mount!
06/14/2012
Almost exactly a year since its discovery by PanSTARRS the comet is now moving between constellations of Scorpion and Libra and has reached magnitude 12. It is now 3.3 and 4.3AU away from the Earth and Sun respectively. It crossed the orbit of Jupiter in March and won't reach Mars orbit until January 2012. A small tail is clearly visible on stacked image.
 |
| Comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) |
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.22025 15 50 00.09 -25 47 03.2 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.22882 15 49 59.45 -25 47 02.7 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.23578 15 49 58.92 -25 47 02.1 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.24109 15 49 58.52 -25 47 02.1 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.24803 15 49 57.94 -25 47 01.4 14.6 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 06 14.25266 15 49 57.63 -25 47 01.6 14.6 N 857
04/22/2012
Over the past few weeks the comet kept moving through dense star fields and crossed the border of the constellation Scorpius. Here it is easily seen as bright magnitude 15 object. The images were taken with 370mm Riegel telescope.
It is somewhere in here... (this one was actually taken with Takahashi Epsilon 250 the following night). The bright star is 25 Sco.
COD 857
OBS A. Kostin
MEA A. Kostin
TEL 0.37-m f/14 reflector + CCD
NET PPMXL
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.40209 16 47 48.59 -25 19 10.0 15.4 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.42293 16 47 47.71 -25 19 12.2 15.4 N 857
CK11L040 C2012 04 22.44375 16 47 46.79 -25 19 14.3 15.4 N 857
04/01/2012
Below is a composite of two images taken on 03/29 and 04/01/2012 as the comet was traveling close to the border of Ophiuchus (Змееносец) and Scorpius. The comet is very close to the galactic equator as you can see from the number of stars!
