Thursday, August 11, 2011

Update about 213P/Van Ness fragmentation

On August 9, 2011 we have obtained follow-up images of comet 213P/Van Ness + fragment.

For more information about this event see our previous post:
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2011/08/fragmentation-event-in-213pvan-ness.html

Stacking of ten exposures, 60-sec each, obtained remotely from the Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope North on 2011, Aug. 9.6, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD + Bessel-R filter, under good seeing conditions, shows some evolution of the fragment "b" of comet 213P.

The brightness of its central condensations appears to be dropped by about half a magnitude, compared to our previous observing session on 2011, Aug. 5.6. The central condensation itself appears now elongated, extending nearly 3" in PA 235. The tail of this fragment has been measured to be nearly 16" in PA 233.


Our image (click for a bigger version):



by N. Howes, H. Blyth, G. Sostero, E. Guido

No comments: