Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques: a new image and movie (17 Aug. 2014)

Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques: 17 Aug. 2014

Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques: 17 Aug. 2014

After more than one week of stop, once the Moon moved away, we observed the comet C/2014 E2 Jacques again.

The image above comes from the average of 6, 180-seconds exposures, remotely taken with the  17″ robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope. The telescope’s mount tracked the apparent motion of the comet. At the imaging time, the comet was around 40 degrees above the horizon: the ion tail is showing pretty well, with many  intriguing details.

The image was carefully processed and nonlinear stretching was used to show both the bright central condensation and faint tail details.

The image scale is 1.2″/pixel.

Using 36, 180-seconds images, taken back to back with the same instrument, it was possible to create an amazing movie, showing how the plasma tail evolves in matter of minutes. This movie covers from 21:52 to 23:58UT, 17 Aug. 2014. Note: a few satellites crossed the field of view.

Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques: a movie - 17 Aug. 2014

Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques: a movie – 17 Aug. 2014

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