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Astronomy Forum › Astrophotography › Space pictures.. (Moderators: SMacB, Moderator)

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Comet Wild 81/P (Read 1149 times)

SMacB

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Comet Wild 81/P
01/22/10 at 21:40:58

Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2 (pronounced /ˈvɪlt/ Vilt), is a comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered it in 1978.
It is believed that for most of its 4.5 billion-year lifetime, Wild 2 had a more distant and circular orbit. In September 1974, it passed within less than one million kilometers of the planet Jupiter, whose strong gravitational pull perturbed the comet's orbit and brought it into the inner solar system. Its orbital period changed from 43 years to about 6 years, and its perihelion is now about 1.59 AU (astronomical unit).

Taken from Moorook Australia 20 Jan 2010 around 5 AM local, just as the sun was rising. 18:41 - 18:57 UTC using G6
5 x 3 minute exposures.

Below is a short gif animation of the 5 images I got before the skies lightened too much...

Image link

wild_81p_Luminance.jpg

« Last Edit: 01/23/10 at 12:22:05 by SMacB »

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SMacB

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Re: Comet Wild 81/P
Reply #1 - 01/22/10 at 23:28:04

I wanted a colour image, so here's one taken from the Northern hemisphere, this time Using G4 in Mayhill NM.
20 images 120 sec subs (8 x Clear, & 4 ea V, B, R)

Below is an animation of all the frames taken

It is interesting that the V, B & R frames seem to show that the dust tail is quite extensive. It may be that the light from 38Vir is illuminating it. I shall attempt to study this further....

Image link

81P_Wild_colour_G1.jpg

« Last Edit: 01/23/10 at 12:23:47 by SMacB »

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Re: Comet Wild 81/P
Reply #2 - 01/26/10 at 00:27:35

I must admit that I am a little disappointed with the images from this session. I must try to figure out how to use ACP Planner to do non-sidereal tracking for moving objects. I'll be able to get longer exposures. Anyway, here's the data....

The images have not turned out as well as I had hoped, & I'm not certain as to which version I prefer..

Version 1, aligned on stars;

Version 2, aligned on comet;

Taken using G10 in Moorook, Australia 23 Jan 2010. 16:45 - 19:09 UTC.
5 x Luminance (3 120 sec, 2 180 sec) bin 1
8 x Blue (120 sec) bin 2
10 x Green (8 120 sec, 2 180 sec) bin 2
10 x Red (8 120 sec, 2 180 sec) bin 2

Time lapse image:

« Last Edit: 01/30/10 at 13:18:50 by SMacB »

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Re: Comet Wild 81/P
Reply #3 - 03/19/10 at 21:37:21

G14 19 Mar 2010 10:30 UTC. 4 x 300 sec luminance.
RA 14:12:28.1 Dec -06:40:16. Apar. mag 7.78
As I like to do time lapse images of celestial movers, thought it was just the right time to revisit Wild 81P. A set of 4 images daily (weather permitting*) for the next few days, I may go weekly after that until mid June. All will hopefully become apparent when the project is finished. Suffice to say we'll see a bit of celestial acrobatics! Wink

And a close-up view....

and as promised animated (10:30 - 11:00 UTC)

*^{That may well have put the kaibosh on things}

_{[Ed. - what was I saying? This is the all-sky image for March 20. Kaiboshed indeed...
]}

« Last Edit: 03/20/10 at 10:14:11 by SMacB »

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Re: Comet Wild 81/P
Reply #4 - 03/27/10 at 11:06:44

No G14 images today as it is being prepared for the Astronomy.FM Messier Marathon.
Fortunately, as luck would have it, after a 10 day wait, my BRT colour images were done.

Te above is an overlay of my 19 Mar image in G14, and today's image from the BRT. The blue line shows its movement (right to left) during that time period.
As well as 114 Kassandra, also spotted here are asteroids 2001 FX12

and 2001 TB65

2 x 3 min exposures ea R, G & B. 27 Mar 2010, 02:00 - 02:33 UTC

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Re: Comet Wild 81/P
Reply #5 - 04/06/10 at 23:08:48

I'm still following this with the GRAS scope G14, but was pleased to have another image returned from the Bradford Robotic Telescope.
6-April-2010 02:48:12 UTC
Centered on RA 14:11:51.00 Dec -06:12:25.00
R, G, B 180000 ms (3 min) each

The faint line across the top of the image (right to left), green-blue-red, I believe to be a geosynchronous satellite. I don't have one in my database that fits with the observation time, but there are several that pass through along that line. These include:
Thor 6
EUTELSAT W7
INTELSAT 14 (IS-14)
INTELSAT 16 (IS-16)
DIRECTV 12
ECHOSTAR 1
NSS-12
COMSATBW-1
RADUGA-1M 2
INTELSAT 15 (IS-15)

I suspect that it may be INTELSAT 14, but I have that passing over 45 minutes later. I shall look into this a bit more...

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Astronomy Forum › Astrophotography › Space pictures.. (Moderators: SMacB, Moderator)

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