Comet 108P/Ciffreo, possible fragmentation: a new image – 8 Jan. 2022

We observed comet 108P/Ciffreo again, clearly spotting its possible fragmentation. The image is presented below.

Comet 108P/Ciffreo and its likely fragment. 8 Jan. 2022.

Comet 108P/Ciffreo and its likely fragment. 8 Jan. 2022.

The image above comes from the average of 14, 180-second exposure, unfiltered, remotely collected with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the comet.

We present the original data, with a few inserts on the top. From left to right, we did: 1) iterative sharpening with inverted palette; 2) iterative sharpening; 3) iterative sharpening plus 2X re-scaling; 4) original data with inverted palette.

The presence of a secondary nucleus or cloud debris is quite apparent. Also, a little tail is visible pointing in the South-West direction. The secondary component is at 7 arc-seconds from the main one.

Further observations will follow.

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