ScienceDownEast | ScienceDownEast Astrophotography | Recent Images | Comet-P12 Pons Brook "Millennium_Falcon"
12P/Pons–Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years. It is one of the brightest known periodic comets, reaching an absolute visual magnitude ~5 in its approach to perihelion. Comet Pons-Brooks was discovered at Marseilles Observatory in July 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons, and then later recovered in 1883 by William Robert Brooks.
The next perihelion passage is 21 April 2024, with closest approach to Earth being 1.55 AU (232 million km) on 2 June 2024. The comet is expected to brighten to about apparent magnitude 4.5. The comet nucleus is estimated to be around 30 km in diameter assuming it was not producing too much dust and gas during the 2020 photometry. 12P/Pons–Brooks may be the parent body of the weak December κ-Draconids meteor shower that is active from about November 29 to December 13. - Wikipedia.
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| Exposure | 46@300 sec (3 hours 50 min) | |||||||||
| ISO | 3200 | |||||||||
| Camera | Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504] | |||||||||
| Optics | Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length | |||||||||
| Filter | None | |||||||||
| Guiding | Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope | |||||||||
| Controller | Images taken using Kstars on an Mele Quieter 3C under Unbuntu 22.04.3 | |||||||||
| Location | Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. | |||||||||
| Date | 2023-07-25 and earlier sessions | |||||||||
| PixInsight Processing |
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