Object Name (M76 & C2014/Q2 Lovejoy)
Object Type (Planetary nebulae and Comet)
Location (Observatoire Astronomique de Bauduen – Verdon – France)
Date (2015-02-19 / 21:00LT)
Media (graphite pencil, on white paper, paint.net and MS Gif animator)
Once again I had the opportunity to use the fast (3.3) 24″ reflector made by Olivier Planchon. The EP used is a 2″, 31mm Nagler.
The C2014/Q2 Lovejoy comet fades out on its way back. In the same FOV we can see M76 a planetary nebulae. The NGC number is double because when discovered people suspected that this was a double nebulae (NGC 650 & NGC 651). The distance of M76 is still unknown.
During our 1 hour session we were able to observe the displacement of the proto-nucleus facing a nice m= 8.7 K5 red star, SAO 22504. The separation was here only 1’. To make this small gif animation I made 7 sketches to indicate the relative positions.
The light of this star takes 1400 years through the coma to reach our planet while the light takes only 10 minutes from Lovejoy to us.
That was a nice double rendez-vous!
Clear sky to you all!
Michel Deconinck
http://astro.aquarellia.com
Michel,
Impressive sketch of the comet and planetary nebula.
The animated motion of the comet is outstanding.
Your work is always interesting and impressive.
Frank 🙂
Aloha Michel,
This is a wonderful capture of comet lovejoy and M76. The animated movement is an extra special treatment and displays how quickly the comet moves through the eyepeice. Delightful!
Cindy
Thank you Cindy and Frank for your nice comments. It’s because of those returns that we will continue to share our works via ASOD and others
Michel