David's Astronomy Pages CCD Images - Session 695 (2019-09-16)

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Session Notes

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - Interstellar Comet     Variable Stars (photometric monitoring)   - RX And, Z And, CI Cyg, U Gem, BL Lac, FO Ori, FU Ori, FG Sge, RR Tau     Nearby Stars (astrometric monitoring)  - 61 Cyg, EV Lac

- Night session (5.5 hours) Session operated in fully automated mode with some  monitoring during the first part of the session - Main aim of the session was to aquire image of the recently discovered interstellar comet  C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) Conditions relatively good, but interruptions due to cloud later in session.  Bright sky , moon at 92% phase     - 12" LX200 + ST-10XME for imaging - TS 80mm APO + ZWO ASI178MC for guiding & imaging - Ambient Temperature:  Falling  to 6.5°C (min). Outdoors 6°C (min) (Dew heaters on manual,  58%) - CCD Temperature:  -15°C  (62% av. power) - Notes from 2019-09-16 >>

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - Interstellar Comet

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) (passing through Cancer) Sun Distance 2.61 AU Earth Distance 3.22 AU (481.2 million km) (white circle marks the location of the comet based on published oribital elements) It's extremely high eccentricity (2.89) indicating a hyperbolic orbit and very fast velocity (too fast to be captured by sun's gravity), make it likely that this is an interstellar visitor

Annotated CCD Image (50% size) 7 x 120s exposure (average combine), 3x3 binning, C Filter 2019-09-17 03:56 UT (#695253-60) 12" LX200R (at f/10.4) + ST-10XME Auto-guided on offset star using TS 80mm APO, ZWO ASI178MC & PHD2

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - Detail Image affected by dust motte lit up by bright sky / moonlight (comet at altitude 26°)

Annotated CCD Image (50% size, linear scale) Stacked frames, aligned on comet Image details as above

Bright / noisey sky background due to moonlit (Moon at 92% phase,  33° altitude & at 104° angular separation from C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) )

CCD Image (100% size, cropped) Stacked frames, aligned on comet Image details as above

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - Video Sequence Sequence shows the relatively rapid apparent motion of comet, despite its distance  (3.22 AU) Comet shows 20 arc sec of movement over 14.9 mins, which corresponds to a motion of 1.3 arc min/hour (or 0.54 arc deg/day)

Video Sequence of 7 CCD frames (100% size, cropped) 2019-09-17 03:47 to 04:02 UT (#695253-60) Image details as above

More Images of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov)

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - All Sky Image 180° All Sky image showing position of comet at time of CCD Images above

C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) - Path through Solar System Image : Frame from orbit animation by NASA/JPL-Caltech  & VideoFromSpace with some extra annotation

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