Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Periodic Comet 6P/d'Arrest

This comet has been recovered during its current return to perhelion by J. Hobart (Kachina Observatory) on 2008 Apr. 29.37, through a 0.36-m f/11.2 Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD, while it was slowly moving in Ophiucus at m2~ 19.5.

It is supposed to became a relatively easy telescopic object in a few months from now; perihelion will be reached on 2008, August 14, while perigee will occour few days earlier).

We performed some follow-up observations on 2008, June 9 (details on image; click on it for a bigger version):


In our stackings it appears as a faint starlike object (red magnitude close to 18) while it moves in a very rich Milky Way's star field in Aquila. Due to the star crowding, it is nearly impossible to distinguish any potential weak coma, if present.

by Giovanni Sostero & Ernesto Guido

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