Trying to catch up after last night…those in the northern hemisphere are enjoying Comet PanSTARRS this week. Well, I am visiting Chile and got to see Comet Lemmon last night. Comet Lemmon is pretty far south right now but will be putting in a dawn appearance for the northern hemisphere in April.
Comet Lemmon (discovered on Mount Lemmon in Arizona, hence the name) was not visible to the naked eye last night. It did show up nicely in small binoculars and on my Canon 60d.
Comet Lemmon also has a very different color than PanSTARRS. You have probably noticed PanSTARRS is very yellowish while Lemmon is much more blue. Cyanogen gas and diatomic carbon are tinting this comet whereas PanSTARRS is dominated by reflected sunlight from its nice dust tail giving it a more yellowish ting.
I don’t think Lemmon will put on as nice of a show as PanSTARRS, but its worth checking out as it moves north.
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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5 comments:
I never would have guessed so much visible action was taking place each and every night if you know where to look.
Haven't seen a comet in the sky for years! Nice pic hale!
I see more stars in hale's blogs than I do in real life. Thanks.
Thanks Hale. We tried 4 times to see it and never did. Thank goodness for you and your great pictures.
Oops. Wrong comet.
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