[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.
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
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)