Comet Lovejoy - 2014 Dec 29
Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is a long-period comet discovered on 2014 August 17 by Terry Lovejoy using a 0.2-meter (8-in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. It was then shining at apparent magnitude 15 in the southern constellation Puppis. This the fifth comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy. One of his previous comets (C/2013 R1) was widely viewed in 2013.
Since its discovery, Comet Lovejoy has been approaching the Sun and climbing northwards from the Southern Hemisphere. By mid-December the comet was far enough north to be viewed from the USA and Europe. Around the same time, Comet Lovejoy became visible to the naked eye for experienced observers from dark sky locations.
Throughout late December (2014) and January (2015), Comet Lovejoy with move further north as is expected to peak at about magnitude 4. The comet passes closest to Earth on 2015 Jan 07 at a distance of 0.469 AU (70,200,000 km or 43,600,000 mi). Perihelion (closest point to the Sun) occurs on 2015 Jan 30 at a solar distance of 1.291 AU (193,096,000 km or 119,985,000 mi).
The image above was shot on the night of 2014 Dec 27/28. At that time, Comet Lovejoy passed 1/3° from globular cluster Messier 79 (visible just above the head of the comet in this image).
For more information, see the Wikipedia and Sky and Telescope entries about Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2).
Technical Details
- Object: Comet Lovejoy - 2014 Dec 29
- Date/Time: 2014 Dec 29 at 08:14 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1600GTO
- Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon 180 Hyperbolic Astrograph
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) (modified with a Baader UV/IR filter)
- Field of View: 1.70° x 2.56° at 1.7 arc-sec/pixel (web version: 10.0 arc-sec/pixel)
- Exposure: 30s, 60s and 120s, f/2.8, ISO 1600
- File Name: lovejoy14-02w.jpg
- Processing (Adobe Camera Raw): Graduated Filter, Vignetting Correction, Noise Reduction, White Balance, Curves
- Processing (Photoshop CS6): Average Images, Curves, HDR
- Original Image Size: 3454 × 5179 pixels (17.9 MP); 11.5" x 17.3" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2014 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.
