======================================================================
BAA electronic bulletin No. 00228 http://www.britastro.org/
======================================================================
Comet C/2006 A1 Pojmanski
This comet has been putting on a good show low in the east in the mornings. It came to perihelion on February 22 and it is currently moving out of the morning twilight but fading quite rapidly. Current reports put it at around magnitude 5.5 with an ion tail several degrees long visible on images.
The best time to see the comet is at the start of morning twilight between 0430 and 0500 UTC. At 0500 UTC tomorrow morning the comet will be about 20 degrees up just south of east and just southeast of the star epsilon Delphinus. As always with comets a dark, clear sky will give the best results. From very dark sites the comet may be visible with the naked eye but binoculars will make it much more obvious. The tail is oriented almost due west on the sky.
Over the next week the comet will move higher in the dawn sky as it tracks through Vulpecula and Cygnus but it will fade rapidly and the Moon will start to interfere from the 11th onwards.
The following ephemeris will allow you to plot the comet's position. Note that the positions are for approximately 0500 UTC on the day specified. The UK weather forecast does not look very good for the next few days but any observations that you do make should be sent to the Comet Section.
There is currently an excellent image of the comet taken by Eddie Guscott posted as picture of the week on the BAA web page.
Ephemeris for C/2006 A1 Pojmanski
T 2006 Feb 22.1816 TT w 351.18780 )
e 0.99978000 O 211.34280 ) 2000.0
q 0.5553970 A.U. i 92.73620 )
Source: mpec 2006-e15 Positions are geocentric
m = 8.4 + 5.0 log R + 10.0 log r
Date R.A. (2000) Dec. R r Elong Mag. Motion
h m o ' (AU) (AU) o "/hr P.A.
2006 Mar
8.20 20 44.18 +10 8.4 0.783 0.641 40.2 5.9 409 19
9.20 20 47.81 +12 41.2 0.790 0.652 41.0 6.0 401 20
10.20 20 51.58 +15 10.1 0.798 0.664 41.8 6.1 393 21
11.20 20 55.48 +17 34.5 0.808 0.676 42.6 6.2 383 22
12.20 20 59.49 +19 54.1 0.819 0.689 43.3 6.3 372 23
13.20 21 3.62 +22 8.7 0.831 0.702 44.1 6.5 361 24
14.20 21 7.84 +24 18.0 0.845 0.715 44.9 6.6 349 25
15.20 21 12.16 +26 21.8 0.859 0.729 45.6 6.7 337 26
16.20 21 16.56 +28 20.3 0.875 0.743 46.3 6.8 325 27
17.20 21 21.03 +30 13.3 0.891 0.757 47.0 6.9 313 28
18.20 21 25.57 +32 1.0 0.908 0.772 47.6 7.1 301 29
19.20 21 30.17 +33 43.4 0.926 0.787 48.2 7.2 289 30
20.20 21 34.81 +35 20.6 0.945 0.802 48.7 7.3 277 31
21.20 21 39.50 +36 53.0 0.964 0.817 49.2 7.4 266 32
22.20 21 44.23 +38 20.6 0.984 0.832 49.7 7.6 255 33
23.20 21 48.98 +39 43.6 1.004 0.848 50.1 7.7 245 34
24.20 21 53.76 +41 2.2 1.025 0.863 50.5 7.8 235 35
25.20 21 58.56 +42 16.7 1.046 0.879 50.9 7.9 225 36
26.20 22 3.36 +43 27.3 1.068 0.895 51.2 8.1 216 37
27.20 22 8.18 +44 34.1 1.089 0.911 51.5 8.2 208 38
28.20 22 12.99 +45 37.4 1.111 0.927 51.8 8.3 199 39
29.20 22 17.80 +46 37.3 1.134 0.943 52.0 8.4 192 40
30.20 22 22.60 +47 34.1 1.156 0.959 52.2 8.5 184 41
31.20 22 27.39 +48 28.0 1.179 0.975 52.4 8.6 177 42
2006 Apr
1.20 22 32.16 +49 19.0 1.202 0.991 52.5 8.8 170 43
2.20 22 36.91 +50 7.4 1.225 1.007 52.7 8.9 164 44
3.20 22 41.64 +50 53.3 1.248 1.023 52.8 9.0 158 45
4.20 22 46.34 +51 36.8 1.271 1.040 52.9 9.1 152 46
Nick James, Assistant Director, Comet Section.