Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann in outburst: an image (11 Dec. 2018)

A new image of comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann was captured during its recent outburst and shows a very interesting coma.

Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann: 11 Dec. 2018

Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann: 11 Dec. 2018

* NB: versione in Italiano qui *

The image above comes from the average of seven, 300-seconds exposures, unfiltered, remotely collected with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at the Virtual Telescope Project. The robotic telescope tracked the apparent motion of comet 29P, so stars left trails on the background. The image scale is 1.2″/pixel.

A nice coma is evident around the false nucleus, particularly in the SW direction, with the shape typical for this comet. The very inner coma shows some interesting structures, too. A satellite trail is also visible on the upper left. We will try to observe this comet in the next nights, weather permitting.

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