Starship Asterisk*

A Conjunction of Comets

Explanation: A conjunction of comets is captured in this pretty star field from the morning of September 17. Discovered in July by a robotic sky survey searching for supernovae, comet C/2017 O1 ASASSN is at the lower left. The visible greenish glow of its coma is produced by the fluorescence of diatomic carbon molecules in sunlight. Nearing its closest approach to the Sun, the binocular comet was only about 7.2 light-minutes from Earth. In the same telescopic field of view is the long-tailed, outbound comet C/2015 ER61 PanSTARRS at the upper right, almost 14 light-minutes away. Many light-years distant, the starry background includes faint, dusty nebulae of the Milky Way. The well-known Pleiades star cluster lies just off the top right of the frame.

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Some technical detail of the capture?? equipment used?? location?? the author does not specify anything on his website............or maybe it is done with a robotic telescope rented for hours???

astrometbcn wrote:Some technical detail of the capture?? equipment used?? location?? the author does not specify anything on his website............or maybe it is done with a robotic telescope rented for hours???

But this information is presented on the linked webpage in the caption.

Takahashi FSQ-106ED f/5,0 + SBIG STL-11000M [from] Mayhill, Nuevo México

Great...double the doomsday.... well today is SUPPOSED to be the "End of the World" according to some... too bad, I have a movie night with friends later... don't want anything to spoil it...

For a robotic shot...it is a pretty good image... an awesome star filled background...

:---[===] *

Chris Peterson wrote:

AFalesiedi wrote:Some technical detail of the capture?? equipment used?? location?? the author does not specify anything on his website............or maybe it is done with a robotic telescope rented for hours???

But this information is presented on the linked webpage in the caption.

Takahashi FSQ-106ED f/5,0 + SBIG STL-11000M [from] Mayhill, Nuevo México

Thanks Chris, and the time expo for our dear troll is (L:4×180 sec. + RGB:1x60 sec.)... a lot of hours

Today's explanation refers to C/2017 O1 ASASSN as a binary comet. Does this suggest that it has two separate nuclei, only one of which I can resolve in the image posted?

Imagineer wrote:
Today's explanation refers to C/2017 O1 ASASSN as a binary comet.

Does this suggest that it has two separate nuclei, only one of which I can resolve in the image posted?

Today's explanation refers to C/2017 O1 ASASSN as a binocular comet comet.

This suggests that it can be seen from Earth with binoculars.