[ATMoB-discuss] Comet Swan last night

[John Boudreau]

I've seen reports that although the coma of Comet Swan 2006 M4 has slightly decreased in brightness over the last 48 hours after it's outburst a few days ago, that the tail has perhaps more than doubled in length. On Wednesday night I tried to image the comet between clouds, and although I didn't get a real good image then, I'd say that the tail was at least 1.5 degrees in my images. Last night (Thursday), with the same setup the tail was recorded at least 3 degrees long and much more distinct. I've seen binocular reports from dark sky locations where the observers could trace the tail out to 5 degrees last night!

Here's a combined result from last night of 10 one minute exposures, mid sequence was at 8:29 PM. North is to the upper left. The field is about 3x2 degrees.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/comet_swan_2006_m4_102706.jpg

The image is taken with my ST-10XE and Takahashi FS60C working at f/4.7 from my Saugus backyard, looking through the light pollution dome of Route 1. It's B&W only, as color imaging is more of a problem through strong light pollution.

---John