[BAA-ebulletin 00655] Comet C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes)

[Rick]

[BAA-ebulletin 00655]  Comet C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes)
(c) 2012 British Astronomical Association    http://www.britastro.org/

This discovery, the first by an amateur in 2012, was made by Manfred Bruenjes on 2012 February 11 from his observatory in Warrensburg, Missouri, USA. It was the result of his regular comet search programme using a C14 SCT in hyperstar mode at f/2 and a Canon 5D DSLR. The discovery story and circumstances are available here:

http://www.moonglow.net/ccd/comet/index.html

The comet was reported as a magnitude 15.3 object in the constellation of Pisces and it is currently in the evening sky close to Jupiter which is in the neighbouring constellation of Aries. Following discovery, observers across the world confirmed the object as cometary in nature with a coma of around 1.5 arc minutes diameter, a sharp central condensation and no obvious tail. One of the confirmation images can be seen here:

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-comet-c2012-c2-bruenjes.html

More recent observations report magnitudes of around 10.6 (Feb. 12, A. Novichonok, V. Gerke) so it appears that the comet is currently in outburst. Even though it is sinking lower in the evening sky the comet should be observable at UK latitudes until mid March.

Code (The current orbital Elements are:) Select Expand

T 2012 Mar. 12.72466 TT                                 MPC
q   0.8012940            (2000.0)            P               Q
                   Peri.   62.79877     +0.53511077     +0.80335408
                   Node   118.02782     +0.63174243     -0.58589534
e   1.0            Incl.  162.78134     +0.56085468     -0.10653111
From 82 observations 2012 Feb. 11-14. http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2012C2/2012C2.html

Code (Ephemerides) Select Expand


2012 02 17    01 38 46.8 +17 24 28   0.7872  0.9287    61.9    69.8  16.2
2012 02 18    01 36 09.9 +17 17 36   0.8208  0.9195    60.3    68.9  16.2
2012 02 19    01 33 44.5 +17 11 03   0.8542  0.9105    58.7    68.0  16.3
2012 02 20    01 31 29.1 +17 04 46   0.8874  0.9019    57.2    67.1  16.3
2012 02 21    01 29 22.5 +16 58 44   0.9203  0.8935    55.7    66.1  16.3
2012 02 22    01 27 23.6 +16 52 53   0.9530  0.8853    54.2    65.0  16.4
2012 02 23    01 25 31.4 +16 47 13   0.9855  0.8775    52.8    63.8  16.4
2012 02 24    01 23 45.2 +16 41 41   1.0176  0.8701    51.4    62.7  16.4
2012 02 25    01 22 04.2 +16 36 16   1.0494  0.8629    50.0    61.4  16.5

Observations visual or CCD can be sent to cometobs at britastro org

Denis Buczynski and Nick James (BAA Comet Section)