COBS News archive

New Comet: C/2012 B3 (LA SAGRA)
February 04, 2012
Cbet nr. 3012, issued on 2012, February 04, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 18.3) on CCD images taken with the 0.45-m f/2.8 reflector at La Sagra, Spain on January 29.1, 2012. The apparently asteroidal object was later noted by Jaime Nomen on La Sagra images taken on Jan. 30.2 to be a possible comet with slight diffuseness. The new comet has been designated C/2012 B3 (LA SAGRA).

New Comet: P/2011 VJ5 (LEMMON)
February 03, 2012
Cbet nr. 3010, issued on 2012, February 03, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 18.5) by R. E. Hill on CCD images obtained on February 01.4, 2012 taken with the Catalina Sky Surveys 0.68-m Schmidt telescope. The new comet has been designated P/2011 VJ5 (LEMMON).

Catching a Comet Death On Camera
January 24, 2012
On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise -- but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers.

New comet C/2012 A2 (LINEAR)
January 19, 2012
C/2012 A2 (LINEAR) was discovered by the LINEAR survey on 2012, Jan. 15.41 with a 1.0-m f/2.15 reflector + CCD located near Socorro, New Mexico. It was subsequently placed on the NEO Confirmation Page, where other observatories (including me at 204, P. Birtwhistle from Great Shefford-J95, H. Sato remotely from GRAS-H06 and R. Holmes et al. from H21-ARI) confirmed it as a comet.

Comet C/2011 UF305 (LINEAR)
January 02, 2012
2011 UF305 was discovered by the LINEAR survey on 2011, Oct. 31.07, and subsequently placed on the NEO Confirmation Page. It was confirmed by several observatories and MPEC 2011-V16 was released on Nov. 3.

New comet C/2011 Y3 (Boattini)
December 30, 2011
C/2011 Y3 (Boattini) was discovered by Andrea Boattini on 2011, Dec. 25.24 with the 1.5-m f/2 reflector + CCD from Mount Lemmon Sky Survey (part of the Catalina Sky Survey). He described the comet as being very diffuse with central condensation: four 30-s exposures show a 6 arcsec coma and a wide fan-shaped tail about 30 arcsec long in p.a. 240-245 deg.

New comet P/2011 Y2 (Boattini)
December 29, 2011
P/2011 Y2 (Boattini) was discovered by Andrea Boattini on 2011, Dec. 24.12 with the 1.5-m f/2 reflector + CCD from Mount Lemmon Sky Survey (part of the Catalina Sky Survey). He described the comet as having a very condensed 5 arcsec coma and no sign of a tail in 3 arcsec seeing.

Comet Lovejoy from Orbit
December 25, 2011
eteran astronaut Dan Burbank has seen many amazing things. Once, he even flew through the aurora borealis. So when Burbank says Comet Lovejoy is the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space, it really means something.

Christmas Comet Lovejoy Captured at Paranal Observatory in Chile
December 24, 2011
The recently discovered Comet Lovejoy has been captured in stunning photos and time-lapse video taken from the European Southern Observatorys Paranal Observatory in Chile. The comet graced the southern sky after it had unexpectedly survived a close encounter with the Sun.

Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) approaches the Sun - UPDATE 2011-12-21
December 21, 2011
Thanks to Jakub Černý we had the chance to works on the FRAM team fits of December 17, 2011. We sorted and stacked the best V-filtered frames, and have done some image processing on it.

Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) approaches the Sun - UPDATE 2011-12-17
December 17, 2011
Surprisingly as it may seem, comet Lovejoy appears to have survived its close encounter with the Sun. Video and images relased by the NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught the comet reemerging on the other side of the Sun after its perihelion.

Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) approaches the Sun - UPDATE
December 16, 2011
Thanks to Karl, new STEREO-B, SECCHI fits dated back to December 13, 2011 are available. In spite of the fact that the image scale factor is a little small, its possible to appreciate the growing of a slight asymmetry of the coma (toward the north-east)

Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) approaches the Sun
December 15, 2011
Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy discovered on Nov. 27.7 his third comet, designated C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). On our previous post about this comet you can see our follow-up image and animation.

NASAs Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes the Future
December 08, 2011
NASAs Deep Impact spacecraft completed a 140-second firing of its onboard rocket motors on Thursday, Nov. 24. The rocket burn was performed to keep the venerable comet hunters options open for yet another exploration of a solar system small body.

C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY) - Kreutz Sungrazing Comet
December 07, 2011
Cbet nr.2930, issued on 2011, December 02, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 13) by Terry Lovejoy on three CCD images obtained each on Nov. 27.7 and 29.7 UT with a Celestron 8 0.20-m f/2.1 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector (+ QHY9 camera). The new comet has been designated C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY).

New Comet: P/2011 W2 (RINNER)
December 01, 2011
Cbet nr.2922, issued on 2011, November 29, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 17.9) by Claudine Rinner on CCD images obtained on November 28, 2011 taken with a 0.5-m f/3 reflector located at the Oukaimeden Observatory near Marrakech, Morocco. The new comet has been designated P/2011 W2 (RINNER).

COMET P/2010 UH55 (SPACEWATCH)
November 30, 2011
Cbet 2923, issued on 2011, November 30, reports that an apparently asteroidal object reported by the Spacewatch survey and designated 2010 UH55 by the Minor Planet Center last year, has been found to show cometary activity. The new designation is P/2010 UH55 (SPACEWATCH).

Recovery of comet 171P/Spahr
October 29, 2011
On October 19.5, 2011 we started an observing session to recover the periodic comet 171P/Spahr. T. B. Spahr (then at University of Arizona, Arizona, USA - now Director, Minor Planet Center) discovered this comet with the 0.41-m f/3 Schmidt telescope in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey on 1998 November 16.39.

New Comet: C/2011 U2 (BRESSI)
October 28, 2011
Cbet nr.2875, issued on 2011, October 26, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 19.4) by Terry H. Bressi on CCD images obtained on September 24, 2011 with the Spacewatch 0.9-m f/3 reflector at Kitt Peak. The new comet has been designated C/2011 U2 (BRESSI).

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten
October 27, 2011
Latest indications are this relatively small comet has broken into even smaller, even less significant, chunks of dust and ice. This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as the original comet, completing its unexceptional swing through the inner solar system this fall.