Lovejoy Tail Animation

[MarkS]

I don't know if this will work for you but there's a video here from last night (6 Jan) showing changes in the tail over an 80 minute period.  The tail is very faint and therefore noisy because of being drowned out by moonlight. 

http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2015/lovejoyanim1.avi

I wonder if this is because the comet is perhaps rotating?  It becomes more obvious if you can load the frames up and play them backwards and forwards.

Each video frame is a stack of 7x 1 minute frames done as a "moving average".

Mark

[Kenny]

Great video. I can definitely see the tail rotating. I also expect this will be because the comet is rotating.

[MarkS]

I'm looking forward to trying this again over a longer time period with higher quality data (i.e. with the moon gone!)

Mark

[Carole]

Yes definitely looks like it is rotating.

Carole

[JohnP]

Really interesting Mark - defo a clockwise rotation - never seen an animation like this before so really nice work - John

[RobertM]

That looks superb.  A darker sky will allow shorter exposures and even more tail detail - that would be even better !

Robert