by Joe Stieber » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:29 pm
Asterhole wrote:It appears that the comet is - or was heading directly toward an Earthbound view since there are no visible tails(?) Well, I sure hope to catch a glimpse...
There is a very faint tail, it points almost straight down in this image (towards about the 6:30 o'clock position). In any case, 252P is heading away from us since the closest approach to earth was on March 22, 2016, and it's also past perihelion (March 15, 2016) as indicated at the
Minor Planet Center page for 252P/LINEAR.
Since it's moving away from both the earth and the sun, take your glimpse sooner rather than later! I was out to the New Jersey Pinelands for another view yesterday morning, April 10th, around 3:30 am local time (07:30 UT). The comet was a fine sight in my 16x70 binoculars, but I could not spot it with unaided eyes. However, I was able to capture 252P as a distinct greenish-blue patch with a single 5-second exposure using my DSLR and a 100 mm lens on a fixed tripod.
[quote="Asterhole"]It appears that the comet is - or was heading directly toward an Earthbound view since there are no visible tails(?) Well, I sure hope to catch a glimpse...[/quote]
There is a very faint tail, it points almost straight down in this image (towards about the 6:30 o'clock position). In any case, 252P is heading away from us since the closest approach to earth was on March 22, 2016, and it's also past perihelion (March 15, 2016) as indicated at the [url=http://cgi.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/returnprepeph.cgi?d=c&o=0252P]Minor Planet Center page for 252P/LINEAR[/url].
Since it's moving away from both the earth and the sun, take your glimpse sooner rather than later! I was out to the New Jersey Pinelands for another view yesterday morning, April 10th, around 3:30 am local time (07:30 UT). The comet was a fine sight in my 16x70 binoculars, but I could not spot it with unaided eyes. However, I was able to capture 252P as a distinct greenish-blue patch with a single 5-second exposure using my DSLR and a 100 mm lens on a fixed tripod.