A Visitor to the Swan

A Visitor to the Swan

Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Sketch and Details by Diego González

Hello,

Comet Christensen (C/2006 W3) was probably one of the most interesting views I had last summer. Although not a bright comet, it was small and concentrated, making it easily visible from my moderately polluted backyard. On July 17th it had a size of about 3’ and a roundish shape, with a rather high surface brightness. The comet’s center is slightly brighter but not prominent. It was moving through constellation Cygnus, near Zeta Cygni, so the starfield in the eyepiece is very rich even at high powers. In summary, a small but beautiful comet for a summer night.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Object Name: Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: July 17th, 2009
Instrument: 120mm f/8,3 refractor + BO/TMB Planetary 9mm eyepiece (111x)

Regards,
Diego González

2 thoughts on “A Visitor to the Swan”

  1. Diego,

    Great sketch of this fine comet. Thank you for posting and reminding me of this view which you have beautifully captured. I was able to see this comet on a few evenings earlier this year.

    Frank 🙂

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